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Two youngsters, Edward (Stefan Reck), son of rich parents (Christine Wodetzky, Gerd Baltus), and Sven (Peter Weiss), dream of leaving their lives behind to start a new life without any worries somewhere else - but of course, they lack the money to do so. So they plan to fake their own kidnapping to make Edward's dad pay them 3 million Deutschmark and then escape to a country without extradition treaty - and they've already bought the tickets. There's just one problem, Edward's bodyguard Alf (Charles M. Huber) - whom they plan to kill to make everything look believable. Now at first everything goes great as they manage to overpower Alf and take him to their secret hide-out - but he manages to free himself, disarm the youngsters ... and now he figures he can actually play their game, make them his kidnappees and actually collect the money for himself. And everything goes well, including the handover and releasing the boys. But when inspector Köster (Siegfried Lowitz) questions them, he finds it very puzzling why their statements resemble one another to the letter. The other thing that's puzzling is that Alf doesn't fit the profile of a kidnapper, and even Edward's parents vouch for him, as does his brother Paul (Ron Williams) also in their employ. And with the money in his possession, Alf actually calls Paul and suggests to share the ransom money and escape to a country without extradition treaty. Paul refuses, then shoots Alf dead in a case of misunderstood self defense. He immediately reports this to the police, but when Köster and company arrive on the scene, they find the ransom money gone, and Köster has little problem tracking it back to Edward and Sven ...

Siegfried Lowitz, giving another strong performance, is really the best thing about this episode that suffers from a story that's just a little too far-fetched, while leaving its more interesting aspects - like the relationship of the two boys that's only hinted at, or how Sven's sister (Sibylla Meckel), who spends a considerable time listening in on people, including Edward and Sven - underexplored. In a way, this feels like an episode of a series that has just been on for a bit too long and thus run out of ideas. That said, the series has continued to be produced until at least 2020, with ever changing personnel though.)

Of come interest here is that this is the first episode featuring Charles M. Huber, who would re-join the series as a regular (though naturally as another character) only the following year and stay with Der Alte for a dozen of years.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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