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Somewhere in the Bavarian countryside, night: Ellen (Gabriele Lorenz), a schoolgirl who has spent the day and evening in Munich, is hurrying back to her boarding school to not get into trouble when she runs into one of her teachers, Manger (Wolfgang Kieling), who promises to take her to school safely and not give her away, and invites her to his nearby house for a drink, which she stupidly accepts. The next day, she's found dead, murdered and probably raped, just like another girl, half a year ago. Inspector Derrick (Horst Tappert) and his assistant Klein (Fritz Wepper) arrive at the boarding school to investigate. The headmistress of the school, Dr. Göbel (Hilde Weissner), tries to present her school in the best light possible, but as Derrick and Klein do a bit of digging, they soon find out that not all the teachers are the model citizens Dr. Göbel makes them out to be - however nothing seems to stick enough to make any of the teachers suspects ... that is until Derrick talks to Manger's mother (Lina Carstens), who gives him her piece of mind of the lack of morals of today's youth, which flips a switch with Derrick.

The next day, another girl from the boarding school, Inge (Ingrid Kannonier), calls at the school at night reaching Manger, and she asks to be picked up from the train station - which Manger is happy to do himself, only he pretty much pulls her into his house instead to have his way with her ... but then runs into Derrick, who has set a trap for him to capture him red-handed.

Actually a spin-off of the then popular krimi TV-series Der Kommissar (with the character Harry Klein being transferred over to Derrick), this first episode (though fourth filmed) is pretty much already the blueprint of the whole series (which ran from 1974 to 1998 without interruption, and scripted throughout by Herbert Reinecker, who also wrote all episodes of Der Kommissar): There's little in terms of action or violence (though the central murder scene was cut by some 24 seconds for German TV), and the emphasis is on the psychological aspects of the respective murders, which means long, sometimes poignant and often stilted dialogues, with Derrick always seeming to be a few steps ahead of everybody, especially Klein, who still loyally does most of the footwork.

As for this particular episode, it's certainly one of the racier ones, involving mildly naughty schoolgirls and a sex crime, but as for the series as a whole, it's good average and doesn't seem as tried and true as later episodes (though parallels to Der Kommissar are undeniable), and certainly fun to watch if you're into German krimi TV from the era, not only for its strengths but also (or especially) its weaknesses, yet nothing to write home about. The jazzy, funky score by Peter Thomas is pretty cool though.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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