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Der Kommissar - Sein letzter Coup
episode 76
West Germany 1974
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Helmuth Ashley
starring Erik Ode, Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Elmar Wepper, Helma Seitz, Peter Vogel, Eva Pflug, Walter Buschhoff, Peter Lühr, Günther Stoll, Michael Hinz, Willy Schäfer, Hans Zander, Christian Dorn, Donna Hightower
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, music by Roland Kovac, songs performed by Donna Hightower, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A dead body is dropped on the doorsteps of a police station, and it
turns out to be that of a police informer. Soon homicide inspector Keller
(Erik Ode) and his team have tracked down the deceased's girlfriend Josefa
(Eva Pflug), who works as wardrobe lady at a club, and she tells them from
her work space there she can sometimes overhear conversations in the
next-door office between her boss Rahl (Peter Vogel), a certain Denger
(Walter Buschhoff) who runs a transport company, and somebody only known
as the Professor concerning an unspecified heist. Keller is quick to
identify the Professor as his old nemesis Fredersdorf (Peter Lühr), an
elderly gout-ridden man who has only recently been released from prison,
and whom Keller now pays a visit - also to let him know he's on his trail.
And while Fredersdorf doesn't exactly admit he's involved with whatever is
planned, he doesn't deny it either. Meanwhile, Keller's assistant Erwin
(Elmar Wepper) hides in Josefa's coatroom every night to spy on Rahl's
conversations, while Keller's other assistant Grabert (Günther Schramm)
spends his nights at Rahl's club to ... not really do anything, really.
Eventually, Keller and company get a pretty good idea that Fredersdorf and
company want to rob a money transport using the sewage system for their
getaway. But even if our heroes have all the pieces of the puzzle, he
fails to put them together and the money transport is robbed right under
their noses, and ultimately they only catch Fredersdorf because he's too
vain not to make a phonecall to Keller to gloat - a phonecall that's
traced back to his whereabouts ... American singer Donna Hightower can
be seen performing a couple of tunes - My Funny Valentine and This
World Today is a Mess - in Rahl's club. Now Der
Kommissar has never been a series that was high on narrative
logic, but this is one of the episodes taking the cake: It really starts
with the fact that there's no reason to leave the dead informer on the
police's doorstep to attract attention rather than burying him in the
woods to probably be found only weeks after the heist, goes on with the
fact that robbing a money transport using the sewage system was really
crime fiction staple by 1974 already, so for our heroes not piecing the
rather obvious clues together (or just give the transport extra guards and
put surveillance on the sewage system) isn't very believable, and the fact
that they ultimately catch the bad guy because he had to call in to gloat
is pure pulp fiction but fails to convince - and these are just some
examples of what doesn't work here. So in all, it's still nostalgic fun
but one of the lesser episodes of the series. The tunes that Donna
Hightower performs are pretty cool though.
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