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Der Kommissar - Tod im Transit
episode 97
West Germany 1976
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Theodor Grädler
starring Erik Ode, Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Elmar Wepper, Helma Seitz, Peter Fricke, Paul Muller, Petra Drechsler, Angela Hillebrecht, Hugo Panczak, Thomas Astan, Udo Vioff, Arthur Brauss, Minja Vojvodic, Karl-Otto Alberty, Dirk Dautzenberg, Alexander Pleyer, Peter Martin Urtel, Anton Hörschläger, Christian Dorn
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, music by Hans-Martin Majewski, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar
review by Mike Haberfelner
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As unlikely as it sounds, two car thieves (Hugo Panczak, Thomas Astan)
call Inspector Keller's (Erik Ode) office to report they've just stolen a
car from in front of a hotel - but when they found a dead body in the
trunk, they got cold feet and rather turned themselves in than getting
dragged deeper into the shit. The car belongs to one Eckert (Peter
Fricke), who acts understandably shocked but insists he had nothing to do
with the dead body and claims it must have been dropped there in the hotel
garage as his trunk is never locked. Eckert's room is searched but no
clues for the murder are found - but also no fingerprints at all, not even
Eckert's own, which gets Keller a little suspicious. Also that another
guest of the hotel, Krefelder (Udo Vioff) leaves the hotel rather
suddenly, so Keller has his assistant Grabert (Günther Schramm) follow
him. Meanwhile Keller pieces the puzzle together, there's Eckert who runs
a travel agency and a small shipping company, another guest at the hotel,
who just happens to stay at the hotel every time Eckert does, Prunell
(Paul Muller), runs a moving business for diplomats, and then there's
Krefelder, who's a bit of a mystery man. Following Krefelder, Grabert
finds a clue that links Eckert's to Prunell's truck, but he's lured into
an ambush, shot at and thrown into the river - and he only barely
survives. Keller, with his assistants Heines (Reinhard Glemnitz) and Klein
(Elmar Wepper) track one of Eckert's trucks to a warehouse where its load
is replaced with the one from Purnell's truck - which is sealed because
it's considered diplomatic possessions (but still accessible from the
bottom of the container) - and ultimately everything proves to be a front
for weapon smuggling. The police storm the place, but Krefelder takes
Keller hostage to force his way out - but Heines spoils the plan with a
well-placed gunshot. The very last scene has Keller say to his assistant
"Thanks for everything" - which is only fitting for the very
last episode of the series. ... and as the very last episode of
the series that has been one of the most influential cop shows of German
television (with a concept that producer Helmut Ringelmann would recycle
in only slightly altered form as Der
Alte the following year), this one is a bit of a letdown: Sure
there's plenty of suspense here, and Grabert's almost death is afforded
the proper emotional gravity, and that Theodor Grädler, one of the most
proficient directors of the series (27 of the series 97 episode run), has
directed this one is only fitting, but there's no finality here, no good
send-off to the character - especially since the murder that started
everything soon takes backseat to a plot about gunrunners, with the corpse
being just a plot device to get homicide inspector Keller into the story -
a story that's not at all free of its gaping plotholes and leaps of
reason. That aside though, overall this is by no means a bad watch. Sure
the plot's contrived and not all dialogues sound real, but it's tense, has
some emotional grounding, and the acting's solid. No masterpiece perhaps,
but fans of the series are sure to enjoy this one.
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