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A bank heist that left one of the robbers killed has turned into a hostage situation - which leaves veteran inspector Köster (Siegfried Lowitz) cold, until he recognizes the dead man to be a former henchman of his old nemesis Gala Teretti (Wolfgang Reichmann), whom he had arrested once but had to let go based on a fake alibi. So Köster figures if he offers himself to the gangster inside the bank in exchange for the hostages, he might get to Teretti some way or another. The gangster, Rott (Hans Brenner), agrees to the exchange, and makes good an escape, forcing Köster to first steal a police car, which he exchanges for a fancy Jaguar along the way. To evade pursuers, Rott and Köster seem to zigzag through Bavaria rather aimlessly, and they even pick up a hitchhiker (Katharina Seyferth), who falls for Rott along the way and who he eventually lets go unharmed - and yet Köster manages to somehow get word to headquarters as to where he is and where to send him information about Rott to ... and as it turns out, Köster has hit the jackpot as Rott's girlfriend Katja (Susanne Uhlen) is the former girlfriend of Teretti and the one who has provided him with the alibi. And it turns out Teretti might have tipped off the police about Rott's bank heist, to get Rott out of the way then go after Katja to make sure she won't rescind the alibi. Köster makes a deal with Rott that he will let him go scot free, and with the money from the bank even, if only he delivers Teretti on a silber platter. Rott agrees, but when he learns that Teretti has in the meantime kidnapped Katja, he opts for a showdown instead - but tips off Köster about the whereabouts. In the end almost everybody dies, but Köster finally gets his hands on Teretti.

When the popular TV crime series Der Kommissar came to an end in 1976, producer Helmut Ringelmann (who also co-created and produced Der Kommissar) and his Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion were quick to come up with a concept that wasn't too far off from the earlier series, as Der Alte centers on another veteran investigator who with cunning and relying more on mindgames than action would usually get his prey. In that respect though, this episode, involving an extended car chase and culminating in a shoot-out sure was one of the more thrilling ones. And really, the screenplay has quite a bit to offer, too, as it's about a gangster and an inspector forming a bond with the policeman throwing his moral code overboard to ultimately catch a bigger fish while the villain ultimately dies for a benign reason (saving his girlfriend's life that is), all carried by a healthy load of psychological to-and-fro. Where the episode falls a bit flat though is in the uninspired direction that - despite a very cool soundtrack by Peter Thomas - doesn't really manage to bring the excitement across and keeps things very mundane as a consequence. Also, while the lead characters feel real, much of the supporting cast is badly written, sometimes for padding reasons, and sometimes just to fit the main story. That all said, it's actually quite ok TV entertainment though, that with a bit more effort, could have made a really good cop movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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