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Derrick - Solo für Margarete
episode 47
West Germany 1978
produced by Claus Legal, Helmut Ringelmann, Gustl Gotzler (executive) for Telenova/ZDF
directed by Michael Braun
starring Horst Tappert, Fritz Wepper, Willy Schäfer, Horst Buchholz, Susanne Beck, Lisa Kreuzer, Jacques Breuer, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Siegurd Fitzek, Karl-Heinz Peters, Wulf Kessler, Andreas Seyferth, Michael Brennicke, Bemey Oberrett, Tony Schwarz
written by Herbert Reinecker, music by Klaus Doldinger/Passport, title theme by Les Humphries
TV-series Derrick, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The body of a girl, Margarete (Lisa Kreuzer), is found by the side of
the road, later a bunch of unidentified men lock her landlady (Elisabeth
Neumann-Viertel) in a wardrobe and search her apartment. When inspector
Derrick (Horst Tappert) and his assistant Harry (Fritz Wepper) investigate
they learn that nothing from the apartment is missing but a poster of
musician Alexis (Horst Buchholz), who just happens to play at a local club
pretty much every day. Derrick and Harry want to question Alexis, but
first his brother Ruff (Jacques Breuer), who's also his manager, tries to
block them, and when they finally get through to Alexis, it turns out that
he's a heroin addict. However, he insists on never having seen Margarete.
Then, lo and behold, Margarete's sister Ursula turns up, who just happens
to be the splitting image of Margarete (and is thus also played by Lisa
Kreuzer), and with the blessing of Derrick, she starts visiting Alexis's
shows - and soon enough develops a soft spot for him. Alexis though soon
breaks down and confesses to Derrick that he has killed Margarete because
she forcefully tried to prevent him from shooting up, having long tried to
cure his addiction. Case closed? Well no, because despite Alexis's
confession he doesn't know where he got the knife Margarete was killed
with from. So Derrick does a bit of deducing, figures Alexis's musicians
(Andreas Seyferth, Michael Brennicke, Bemey Oberrett, Tony Schwarz) are
all heroin addicts, and it was actually them who killed Margarete because
she wanted to get him to kick the habit, and ... well, reasons I guess. The
views this episode propagates on drug addiction are pretty ridiculous, but
apparently ripped from the headlines - from decidedly drug-phobic
tabloids. As a result, everything that's told here about heroin addiction
feels somehow off and feeding into sensationalism rather than anything
else, all the way up to the motive of the killers. Which makes this a
rather poor murder mystery, not at all helped by other plotpoints that
seem to pop up in screenwriter Herbert Reinecker's work every now and
again, including the twin motif. And of course, Reinecker's trademark
stilted dialogue and inability of his characters to show proper reactions
to whatever it is don't help here either. Of interest here might be that
the music Alexis is playing on stage are variations of tunes from the then
current album Ataraxia by score composer Klaus Doldinger's fusion
jazz band Passport. Alexis himself is played by Horst Buchholz, who rose
to fame as angry young man in the 1956 movie Die Halbstarken/Teenage
Wolfpack, and has had a pretty successful career since, peaking quite
probably in 1960's The Magnificent Seven. By 1978 however he was 45
years old, and doesn't look and feel the angry young man any more he's
supposed to play, not at all helped by directorial choices. So in all,
not great crime cinema, but nostalgic fun nevertheless.
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