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Derrick - Nur Aufregungen für Rohn
episode 6
West Germany 1975
produced by Hans Peter Renfranz, Helmut Ringelmann (executive), Gustl Gotzler (executive) for Telenova/ZDF
directed by Wolfgabg Becker
starring Horst Tappert, Fritz Wepper, Thomas Fritsch, Helmut Käutner, Gustl Halenke, Thomas Astan, Michael Ande, Peter Böhlke, Jutta Kammann, Peter Capell, Frauke Sinjen
written by Herbert Reinecker, title theme by Les Humphries
TV-series Derrick, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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If anything, Rohn (Thomas Fritsch) is known as a nice young man, a
student who's always short on money - but then again what student isn't?
He's well-liked by his neighbour Seibach (Helmut Käutner) and Seibach's
grown-up offspring Lena (Gustl Halenke) and Eugen (Thomas Astan) and
spends many evenings at their apartment playing cards. Now Seibach is a
money courier, and one of his regular routes leads him to a supermarket
directly next door from the doctor (Peter Capell) Rohn has occasional
appointments at - so he makes up a scheme to during one of his visits
sneak out of the waiting room to rob Seibach and at the same time have the
perfect alibi. The plan goes remarkably well, and nobody would even dream
of suspecting him - nobody but Seibach who finds a pen he knows belongs to
Rohn at the scene of the crime and that evening confronts Rohn. He pretty
much forces Rohn into a confession, and Rohn tries to buy his way out of
it, even offers to return the money if Seibach keeps his name out of it -
but Seibach is unrelenting, so to hush him up Rohn ultimately strangles
him to death, then drops Seibach's body in the street downstairs. A dead
body soon brings inspector Derrick (Horst Tappert) and his assistant Harry
(Fritz Wepper) onto the street, and the two soon notice there's something
off with Rohn. But Rohn is clever and does his best to eliminate all
evidence and obscure his trail, so much so that a search of his apartment
only reveals a very obscure clue. So ultimately, Derrick has the night of
the crime recreated, and during this recreation, Rohn accidently drops the
key to the locker he has hidden the loot at. Now the method
Derrick uses to finally get his man is rather far-fetched - and actually
recreating the circumstances of crimes is a motif that pops up time and
again in screenwriter Herbert Reinecker's whodunnits -, but as a whole,
this is certainly one of the better episodes of the series, as it for a
change concentrates on the culprit and shows great sympathy for him, also
but not exclusively thanks to a relatable performance by Thomas Fritsch.
And the downward spiral he's gotten on would be befitting a film noir
(something that's sadly not mirrored in style and direction of the
episode). On a whole other plane, the performance by veteran German
director Helmut Käutner is of notice, if mainly for the fact that he
directed episode 3
of the series the previous year.
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