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Der Kommissar - Tod eines Ladenbesitzers
episode 36
West Germany 1971
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Wolfgang Staudte
starring Erik Ode, Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper, Helma Seitz, Curt Bois, Hans Hermann Schaufuss, Werner Kreindl, Fritz Rasp, Siegurd Fitzek, Lisa Helwig, Vera Rheingold, Max Griesser, Margarethe von Trotta, Karl Obermayr, Fritz Pauli, Franz Häuser, Angela Bergmann, Hannelore Achter, Gerda Kühl
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Somewhere in the Bavarian countryside: Store owner Heinze (Karl
Obermayer) is found beaten to death with a chair leg in his store, and a
witness tells investigating inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and
his team (Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Fritz Wepper) she saw an
elderly man, Voss (Hans Hermann Schaufuss), walking away from the crime,
very casually informing her that Heinze has been murdered. So Keller and
company investigate the neighbouring old people's home run by one Sierich,
the inmates of which all were regulars with Heinze, mostly for buying
alcohol, but he was a moody man often mean to them. Now Sierich's facility
is run a little bit like a prison, and Keller soon learns Sierich might
even enrich himself at the expense of his inmates. To put it another way,
he's not very popular with the elderly in his retirement home. Keller's
assistants also find a chair with one leg missing in one of the place's
store rooms, the leg Heinze was beaten to death with, suggesting that one
of the retirees has committed the murder - much to the protest of Sierich.
And then the chair misses a second leg ... Keller soon zeroes in on one
of the elderly, Ohlers (Curt Bois), whom he suspects to be the murderer as
he's one of the ringleaders in the retirement home, and Ohlers doesn't do
much to dispel Keller's suspicions but refuses to make a confession until
the next day. This evening, Sierich is found murdered, also beaten to
death with a chair leg, and to Keller's surprise the murderer wasn't
Ohlers but another inmate, but that said, the whole retirement home knew
about this and supported him ... And interdesting episode
inasmuch as for once inspector Keller is wrong in fingering the murderer
in question, cannot prevent a murder that was pretty much announced, and
even shows some sympathy for the killer and company. But that's not to say
that the plot of this episode isn't pretty far-fetched, and of course not
made any better by Herbert Reinecker's trademark stilted and unnatural
dialogue. On a directorial level however, the episode shows traces of
gothic filmmaking, anbd some really atmospheric and creepy shots, like
when the pensioners lay siege to the local inn. So despite some narrative
shortcomings, one of the more memorable and entertaining entries into the
series.
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