Crime scene: fireworks for a corpse

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title Fireworks for a corpse
Country of production Austria
original language German
Production
company		 ORF
length 88 minutes
classification Episode 211 ( List )
First broadcast October 2, 1988 on ORF
Rod
Director Kurt Junek
script Bert Stone Gods
production Dieter Limbek
camera Walter Kindler
cut Daniela Padelewski
occupation

Fireworks for a corpse is an Austrian television thriller from 1988. Bert Steingötter wrote the screenplay and directed Kurt Junek . It was the 211th Tatort episode and the eighth and last case by Oberinspektor Pfeifer ( Bruno Dallansky ), but of the eight episodes only three were episodes of the official Tatort series, the remaining five were Tatort episodes of ORF, the only first broadcast in Austria and partly not shown on television in Germany. Pfeifer and his employees are dealing with a bank robbery and the murder of a cashier.

action

A small Viennese bank branch is attacked, the apparently Italian-speaking perpetrator steals half a million schillings and shoots the cashier Herta Fischer, although she followed all the perpetrator's instructions without resistance. In the vicinity of the bank, the police can seize the NATO jacket that the perpetrator was wearing, there are Turkish cigarettes in the pocket and the telephone number of a Turkish restaurant is noted on the package. While his assistants speculate whether the perpetrator was Italian or Turkish, Chief Inspector Pfeifer suspects that the perpetrator deliberately wanted to lay the wrong track. Meanwhile, Inspector Fichtl brings the sad news to the visibly shocked widower Harald Fischer. Thomas Bubner, the dead brother's brother, reports to the officials. He is not very good at talking to his brother-in-law, but he cannot help the officials. He immediately dismissed his brother-in-law, for whom he had found work. The surveillance camera does not provide any information, it was used the evening before the attack for a birthday party for the branch manager and was not switched on again afterwards. Fichtl and Winter go to see Harald Fischer again, who says that his wife spoke perfect Italian, this could be an indication that she recognized and possibly recognized the perpetrator. Fischer doesn't seem to mourn too much in the following years, but tries to win back his lover Eva Walder, with whom he cheated on his wife. When he makes a hint to her that he might have killed his wife, she lets him stand.

Meanwhile, Fichtl targets branch manager Norbert Kaiser, who drives a noticeably expensive car, and he and Winter learn that Kaiser was replaced as branch manager after the attack from the head office. Fichtl suspects that Kaiser had deliberately disabled the surveillance camera. When they go to the bank's CEO to ask him about Kaiser, the answer is that Kaiser is the grandson of a board member and has been withdrawn to take on larger tasks at headquarters. Meanwhile, Eva Walder tells her new friend Gerhard Drechsler about her encounter with Fischer, who suspects that if Fischer killed his wife, he would have to be in possession of half a million. At his behest, Eva calls Fischer the next day to meet him again. When they meet, Fischer gives Eva a very expensive ring. Meanwhile the bank branch is attacked again, the perpetrator proceeds according to the same pattern, but this time he does not shoot anyone. A police officer present can catch the perpetrator and shoot him down. When questioned by Pfeifer, the employees are sure that it is the same perpetrator, but this time the weapon was only a blank gun. The case seems to be resolved, as the local media announce. Eva and Drechsler also find out about the arrest and no longer believe in Fischer's perpetration. The injured bank robber Grossmann assures Fichtl of his innocence in the fatal robbery of Herta Fischer and can also present him with an alibi; the investigators are thus back at the beginning.

When Drechsler also found out about Grossmann's release from the newspaper, he called Fischer anonymously and blackmailed him. Fischer initially denied having murdered his wife, but apparently allowed himself to be extorted. After meeting Drechsler for the first time, he secretly follows him and finds out that Drechsler and Eva are a couple. Fischer meets with Drechsler to hand over the money, but he has Pfeifer and his colleagues in tow, who set a trap for the blackmailer and arrest Drechsler. Fischer had informed the officials about the blackmailing of his person. The next day, Fichtl and Winter visit Eva and tell her about Drechsler's arrest. Eva admits the blackmail and shows the officers the expensive ring. When asked about this, Fischer admits that he bought the ring and gave it to Eva, but he saved up hard and was able to afford the gift to win back his beloved. Fichtl now considers Fischer suspicious, and shortly afterwards a neighbor tells him that she saw Fischer on the street on the day of the incident despite his illness. Fischer is arrested, but asserts that the neighbor must have mixed up the days. After another neighbor confirmed that the meeting with Fischer took place the day before the attack, he has to be released. Fischer looks for Eva and begs her to come back to him, but she refuses. When Drechsler turns up, who was released before his trial, this fisherman knocks down. Humiliated, he goes home, gets drunk and then causes a traffic accident in which he is injured.

Meanwhile, Fichtl and Winter learn that Herta Fischer had known an Italian, the waiter Mario Nemeth. The officers come to him, Nemeth has no alibi, but he can still convince Fichtl of his innocence, the bank robber apparently copied the Italian phrases he uttered during the robbery from Nemeth's sayings to his guests. Meanwhile, the bank is robbed again, this time there is even a hostage-taking taking place in the bank, the cashier who escaped says that it is probably the same perpetrator as in the first robbery. Winter suspects that the perpetrator is Mario Nemeth and picks up his girlfriend so that she can talk to him. She gives her the key to the locker in which the loot from the first bank robbery is stored. She says that Mario killed Herta out of jealousy of her husband. At the scene of the crime, she speaks to him over the loudspeaker to get him to give up. The masked man finally comes out with the branch manager and then commits a “suicide by cop”. When the officers pull the mask from the head of the shot man, he turns out to be Harald Fischer, not Nemeth, and his weapon was not real either. Pfeifer combines that Fischer, after losing his wife, girlfriend and job, wanted to die like fireworks.

criticism

The critics of the TV magazine TV-Spielfilm rate this crime scene as mediocre and comment: “Routine crime thriller with Viennese smear”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fireworks for a corpse on tvspielfilm.de, accessed on October 24, 2015.
previous episode
September 4, 1988: Deadly meeting 		Crime scene follow Next episode
November 13, 1988: Winter Chess