Crime scene: Curse of the Amber Room
| Episode of the series Tatort | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Curse of the Amber Room |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Production company |
MDR |
| length | 88 minutes |
| classification | Episode 426 ( List ) |
| First broadcast | October 31, 1999 on Das Erste |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hans-Werner Honert |
| script | Hans-Werner Honert |
| production | Hans-Werner Honert Jan Kruse |
| music | Klaus Doldinger |
| camera | Jürgen Heimlich |
| cut | Margrit Schulz |
| occupation | |
| |
Curse of the Amber Room is a television film from the crime series Tatort by ARD , ORF and SRF . The film was produced by MDR under the direction of Hans-Werner Honert and was first broadcast on October 31, 1999. It is the crime scene episode 426. For the chief detective Bruno Ehrlicher and his colleague Kain , it is the last case that they investigate in Dresden .
action
Duke Georg von Sachsen-Gronau appears together with his lawyer Jan Müller at Ehrlicher and Kain . He claims to be threatened and asks for police protection. A gauntlet was sent to him and he suspects that someone doesn't like the fact that he recently found the hiding place in the Amber Room .
The next day, the Duke and his wife are found shot dead in their car. Since traces of smoke are found on the hand, suicide is possible, but Honesty does not seem plausible. The Duke's butler also believes that it is impossible for his master to kill himself. According to the will, the daughter Mary is the sole heir. However, so far it looks like the Gronaus are deeply in debt. The lawyer, who is also engaged to Mary, has advised against taking over the inheritance, but Mary wants to take it over. She soon learns from the caretaker, Ross, that her family has large estates in Poland that nobody knows about.
Heinz Sur turns to his ex-wife Frederike for help. He has noticed that she is now friends with a police officer and seeks her advice. He got caught up in a story that grew over his head. He would have discovered a tunnel together with the Duke and is very concerned that there are secret documents there that some people should not like even today.
According to the forensic examination, murder can actually be assumed, as the gunshot channel speaks for it. Ehrlicher suspects that there are only three possible perpetrators who are in the immediate vicinity of the duke. The administrator Klaus Ross, who was the first to arrive at the crime scene, Heinz Sur, who is looking for the amber room with the Duke, and the lawyer Jan Müller, who was near the crime scene. While the commissioners are looking for clues that speak specifically against one of the three, they themselves become the target of a murder plot. Jan Müller is in the service of Mahrs, an old SS general who does everything to ensure that the old documents in the tunnel do not reach the public. After Jan has already killed the duke and his wife, he is now supposed to silence everyone who knows about the access to the mountain. So he lies in wait for Ehrlicher and knocks him down and Klaus Ross also falls victim to him. He seduces Heinz Sur into driving a car under the influence of alcohol, which leads to a fatal accident. Ehrlich was able to deceive him and survived the attack only slightly injured. Together with Cain he confronts Jan Müller and in the end even has to shoot him to save Kain. Mahrs is arrested because he was involved in the murder of numerous Jews in the concentration camp and still has to answer for it today. To what extent he can be prosecuted as the instigator of the current murders remains open.
background
Curse of the Amber Room was produced by Saxonia Media Filmproduktion GmbH and shot in Leipzig and Dresden. The night shots and underground scenes were shot in Zschorlau , in and around the St. Anna am Freudenstein visitor mine . After 20 cases, Ehrlicher found himself in the embarrassment of shooting a person for the first time in his career as a commissioner. Annekathrin Bürger makes her debut as Frederike and the new series character in Ehrlicher-und-Kain-Tatorte.
reception
Audience ratings
When it was first broadcast on October 31, 1999, the episode Fluch des Bernsteinzimmer was seen by 8.07 million viewers in Germany, which corresponded to a market share of 24.0 percent.
criticism
Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv says about the crime scene: “One suspect after the other appears in the ducal palace. It reminds me a bit of the crime novels by Agatha Christie. And they almost all seem to have a secret, and some are plagued by an obsession. The more the threads of the plot tighten, the more exciting this 'Amber Room' thriller becomes. "
Despite the above-average audience rating, the critics of the TV magazine TV Spielfilm rate the film only as mediocre and say it is a "confused case, [but] with puns (the nobility is a dying class, but not like that!)".
Web links
- Crime scene: Curse of the Amber Room in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Summary of the plot of Curse of the Amber Room on the ARD website
- Curse of the Amber Room at the crime scene fund
- Curse of the Amber Room at Tatort-Fans.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Audience rating at tatort-fundus.de, accessed on January 4, 2016.
- ^ Rainer Tittelbach: Sodann, Lade, Weitzenböck, Honert. On the trail of the lost treasure Film review at tittelbach.tv, accessed on January 4, 2016.
- ↑ Seductive investigators and motif confusion. Short review at tvspielfilm.de, accessed on January 4, 2016.
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previous episode October 24, 1999: The Horsemen of the Apocalypse |
Crime scene follow |
next episode November 14, 1999: Bienzle and blind rage |