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Der Alte - Zwei Mörder
episode 5
West Germany / Austria / Switzerland 1977
produced by Helmut Ringelmann, Hans Peter Renfranz for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF, ORF, SRG
directed by Alfred Vohrer
starring Siegfried Lowitz, Michael Ande, Henning Schlüter, Xenia Pörtner, Vadim Glowna, Christine Wodetzky, Judy Winter, Hans Caninenberg, Christian Reiner, Günther Ungeheuer, Friedrich G. Beckhaus, Renate Grosser, Friedrich Karl Grund, Lilian Rack, Oliver Domnick, Hannes Gromball, Karl Schaidler
written by Karl Heinz Willschrei, created by Helmut Ringelmann, title theme by Peter Thomas
TV-series Der Alte/The Old Fox, Der Alte (Siegfried Lowitz)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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One night, inspector Köster (Siegfried Lowitz) receives a call to a
crime scene where he finds a dead girl and a young man, Peukert (Vadim
Glowna) next to her, who has called the police and freely admits to have
killed her - and it seems like an open and shut case until another young
man, Peter Sartorius (Christian Reiner) shows up at his office and claims
to have killed the same girl that same night as well. Now the two men
don't know each other, have a totally different background, and yet one of
them seems to be lying to cover the other - and the question is why. So
Köster starts to investigates the two, but he doesn't get very far with
Peter, as his dad is the mighty Dr. Sartorius (Hans Caninenberg), who has
lawyered up immediately after he heard about his son's arrest and pulled a
few strings to have Peter transferred from police custody to an asylum,
where it's impossible for Köster to question him. So Köster starts
questioning Peukert, who still insists on having killed the girl because
she has spurned his advances, but the
more he talks the more he contradicts himself. But the decisive statement
comes from Peukert's ex-wife, who has no reason at all to cover up for him
as he has left her for the murdered girl, but at the same time refuses to believe he could kill someone. So Köster
investigates the dead girl and finds out she has welcomed several rich men
to her apartment, Peter one of them, taped their conversations and then
blackmailed them with the stuff they've told her - again, Peter one of
them. And it seems Peter has paid her a substantial sum, more than he
could afford from his own money, and there's no indication that he got the
money from his dad. But there's also Peter's stepmum Gabriela (Judy
Winter), who's only a few years older than he himself, and there's a
certain attraction between them that might have been more than just
familial bonds, in fact enough to be blackmailed with, and bingo, there
are withdrawals on her account that match the sum the dead girl, according
to her notes, has received from Peter ... Now Siegfried Lowitz
turns in another fine performance as inspector Köster, and the
character's unconventional methods and frequent run-ins with his superiors
grow on one, and the script really moves things on a steady pace, only
helped by the dynamic (if not super-remarkable) direction by krimi veteran
Alfred Vohrer - but there's a downside to things too, as the resolution to
the story seems rather far-fetched and pretty much unmasks the premise of
having two men independently admitting to the same murder as nothing but a
gimmick to gain interest from the audience rather than being borne out of
narrative urgency. That said, this is still a rather decent episode - the
script could have done with a rewrite though.
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