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Der Kommissar - Tod eines Landstreichers
episode 73
West Germany 1974
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Jürgen Goslar
starring Erik Ode, Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Elmar Wepper, Paul Dahlke, Eva Vaitl, Elisabeth Orth, Lisa Helwig, Hans Schweikart, Klaus Schwarzkopf, Walter Kohut, Konrad Georg, Walter Sedlmayr
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, music by Erich Ferstl, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The dead body of a vagrant, Kisch (Konrad Georg) is found by a river
near a small Bavarian village, and inspector Keller (Erik Ode)
and his men (Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Elmar Wepper) soon come
to the conclusion he hasn't been killed by the river. And when eating at
the local pub, they also noticce that the landlord, Scherf (Paul Dahlke),
acts mighty suspicious when asked about the dead vagrant. Keller and
company also soon track down the three vagrants (Hans Schweikart, Klaus
Schwarzkopf, Walter Kohut) used to travel with, and they bring them to
Scherf's pub - and Scherf, right in front of the police, offers the
vagrants a room and food and drinks for free, which of course gets Keller
mighty suspicious, and so he and his team question Scherf, Scherf's
daughter (Elisabeth Orth) and the vagrants to gradually learn the truth.
Apparently, Kisch broke into Scherf's pub cum butchery to steal a chicken,
but he was caught by Scherf, who beat him over the head with a walking
stick, effectively killing him. But he couldn't go to the police as Kisch
was his long missing brother, and learning that he killed his brother
would have killed his mother (Lisa Helwig). But once Scherf has confessed
this, Keller ... just doesn't believe him, as there were no traces of
blood found anywhere on the premises. Turns out that Kisch wasn't murdered
at all but fell off a truck to his death right in front of the pub, and
his fellow vagrants decided to make Scherf believe he has killed him to
blackmail him into some food and drinks and a roof over their heads. Writer
Herbert Reinecker seems to go into overdrive here when it comes to stilted
and unnatural dialogue, characters acting irrationally, and a really
far-fetched story with many forced twists and turns - so in a way it's a
pretty classic episode of Der Kommissar, just not in a very
good way. But sometimes, as in this case, the odd writing is part of the
charm of the series, so it's good fun, just not good crime TV.
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