Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from Box-set: episodes 25-49 German language only   CLICK HERE to buy from V.O.D. episodes 25-37 German language only Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

Somewhere in the Bavarian countryside: Store owner Heinze (Karl Obermayer) is found beaten to death with a chair leg in his store, and a witness tells investigating inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and his team (Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Fritz Wepper) she saw an elderly man, Voss (Hans Hermann Schaufuss), walking away from the crime, very casually informing her that Heinze has been murdered. So Keller and company investigate the neighbouring old people's home run by one Sierich, the inmates of which all were regulars with Heinze, mostly for buying alcohol, but he was a moody man often mean to them. Now Sierich's facility is run a little bit like a prison, and Keller soon learns Sierich might even enrich himself at the expense of his inmates. To put it another way, he's not very popular with the elderly in his retirement home. Keller's assistants also find a chair with one leg missing in one of the place's store rooms, the leg Heinze was beaten to death with, suggesting that one of the retirees has committed the murder - much to the protest of Sierich. And then the chair misses a second leg ...

Keller soon zeroes in on one of the elderly, Ohlers (Curt Bois), whom he suspects to be the murderer as he's one of the ringleaders in the retirement home, and Ohlers doesn't do much to dispel Keller's suspicions but refuses to make a confession until the next day. This evening, Sierich is found murdered, also beaten to death with a chair leg, and to Keller's surprise the murderer wasn't Ohlers but another inmate, but that said, the whole retirement home knew about this and supported him ...

And interdesting episode inasmuch as for once inspector Keller is wrong in fingering the murderer in question, cannot prevent a murder that was pretty much announced, and even shows some sympathy for the killer and company. But that's not to say that the plot of this episode isn't pretty far-fetched, and of course not made any better by Herbert Reinecker's trademark stilted and unnatural dialogue. On a directorial level however, the episode shows traces of gothic filmmaking, anbd some really atmospheric and creepy shots, like when the pensioners lay siege to the local inn. So despite some narrative shortcomings, one of the more memorable and entertaining entries into the series.

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 eines Ladenbesitzers at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Der Kommissar - Tod eines Ladenbesitzers here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai Something naughty? (Must be over 18 to go there!)   find Der Kommissar - Tod eines Ladenbesitzers at adultvideouniverse.com

Thanks for watching !!!