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Derrick - Tote Vögel singen nicht
episode 19
West Germany 1976
produced by Claus Legal, Helmut Ringelmann (executive) for Telenova/ZDF
directed by Alfred Vohrer
starring Horst Tappert, Fritz Wepper, Doris Kunstmann, Hans Korte, Hans Caninenberg, Lola Müthel, Harald Leipnitz, Tilly Lauenstein, Günther Stoll, Gerhard Bormann, Wolfgang Stumpf, Dieter Eppler, Ulli Kinalzik, Thomas Astan, Michael Hinz, Gernot Möhner, Henner Quest, Gerd Roman Frosch, Hilde Brand, Addi Adametz, Lilian Rack, Eva Bergmanova, Heini Göbel, Fritz Korn, Ernst Kuhr, Felicitas Peters, Petra Drechsler, Biggi Dras
written by Herbert Reinecker, music by Rolf Kühn
TV-series Derrick, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A girl (Eva Bergmanova) is found dead, her face partially disfigured,
and when inspector Derrick (Horst Tappert) and his assistant Harry Klein
(Fritz Wepper) start to investigate, they don't have to stir things long
to come up with something, as when they come to question the deceased's
landlady Mrs Hager (Tilly Lauenstein), they are shot at by her other
tenant, Reeke (Michael Hinz), who then makes a getaway - weirdly enough to
the the Mona Lisa bar where he's working at and where Derrick and Harry
soon catch up with him - but he's already dead, murdered. All Derrick and
Harry can find is a witness who must have seen the killer run away, lawyer
Schöne (Hans Caninenberg), but he claims to not have seen anything. So
our heroes investigate the bar, which is basically a hub for prostitutes
with a "photo studio", where paying customers can photograph
skimpily dressed girls, in the back. As it turns out the dead girl has
worked there as well, and it's one of the clubs owned by sleazy Malenke
(Hans Korte), who has long been on the police's radar. And interestingly
enough, Schöne turns out to be Malenke's lawyer. For Derrick it's soon
clear that Malenke is behind it all, but he fails to find witnesses for
his involvement, especially since they all tend to turn up dead - some of
them after trying to blackmail Malenke. And then Derrick finds Gerti
(Doris Kunstmann), a friend of the dead girl who's fed up with it all and
is willing to talk - and Derrick has problems keeping her out of harm's
way. In the meantime, Schöne figures he wants out and tries to blackmail
Malenke, but Malenke lures him into a death trap, and can kill him just
before the police arrives to arrest him ... On the plus side,
this episode shows some of director Alfred Vohrer's playfulness that
really borders (self-)parody (including a scene where Derrick kisses Harry
on the forehead) - but on the not-so-good side, storywise this episode
doesn't really fall together, and even if the main villain of the piece is
established early on, he's given little in terms of motive, plus all of
the characters actually act really stupid, like leaving evidence they
could easily have destroyed lying around or hiding where everybody can
find them. On top of this the story seems to be pieced together from
pieces writer has already used earlier, in episodes of Der
Kommissar or even his Edgar
Wallace movies, and the whole thing seems to have been put
together in a rather slapdash way. Some fun to watch still, especially if
seen from a nostalgic point of view, but in no way a good murder mystery.
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