Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Welcome 2025

- Catalyst 2025

- #Manhole 2023

- The Haunting of Hollywood 2024

- Delicate Arch 2024

- Dating My Past 2025

- The Family Business 2024

- Into the Gravel Pit 2025

- Thou Shalt Kill 2024

- White Crow 2025

- Enter the Room 2022

- I Feel Fine 2024

- Round the Decay 2025

- The Baby in the Basket 2025

- Feed 2005

- Altered Reality 2024

- My Husband, the Cyborg 2025

- The Company of Thieves 2025

- Do You See Me? 2017

- Good Neighbours 2024

- Bokshi 2025

- Spectrum 2024

- Wrath of Thorn 2025

- Grace Point 2023

- Up Close 2025

- Sunray: Fallen Soldier 2024

- Hemet, or The Landlady Don't Drink Tea 2024

- Werewolf Game 2025

- A Mr. Shelton Adventure: The Case of the Missing Award 2025

- In the Hands of Fate 2025

- Blackwater Lane 2024

- Hunting Daze 2024

- Lizzie Lazarus 2024

- The Twisted Doll 2024

- Dominoes 2025

- Knight Life 2025

- Watch Us Kill 2024

- Death 2024

- The Yorkie Werewolf 2024

- F.L.Y. 2023

- The Damned 2024

- Kuyashii Gonzo: Blood Visions and Chaos Magic 2024

- The Beast Inside 2024

- Street Trash 2024

- Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties - The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story 2024

- Dead Before They Wake 2025

- DinoGator 2024

- Trivial 2024

- Romancing Sydney 2024

- Gouge Away 2023

- The North Witch 2024

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

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

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!



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.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Der Kommissar - Tod im Transit
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Der Kommissar - Tod im Transit here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!