Crime scene: Kressin stops the Nordexpress

Episode of the series Tatort
Original title	Kressin stops the Nordexpress
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production ; company	WDR
length	76 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
classification	Episode 7 ( list )
First broadcast	May 2nd, 1971 on German television
Rod
Director	Rolf von Sydow
script	Wolfgang crowd
production	Gunther Witte
music	Klaus Doldinger
camera	Jost Vacano , ; Jürgen Juerges
cut	Alexandra Anatra
occupation
	Sieghardt Rupp : Customs Inspector Kressin ; Gitte Hænning : Birgit; Yvonne Ingdal : Pernille Fagerholt; Edgar Hoppe : Detective Master Höffgen; Hermann Lenschau : Customs Council; Gisela Keiner : Secretary in the customs house; Wolfgang Groenebaum : Kaufhold; Wolf Schlamminger : Markowski; Hannes Andersen : Brockhoff; Siegfried Fetscher : Katolli; Ivan Desny : Sievers; Karl-Heinz Otto : Double Otto; Dieter Wagner : Pastor; Heinz Günter Kilian : Erwin; Imo Heite : Bruno; Allan Evans : Solomon; Nino Korda : Antonio; Rudolf Debiel : Herbert; Uta Levka : Olivia; Dagmar Heller : Dagmar, train secretary; Dietrich Frauboes : Naumann; Hans Häckermann : Klinkmüller, officer of the overhead train line; Karl-Heinz Hess : Boeder, detective; Alexander May : von Stolz, member of the Bundestag; Lotte Tarp : Travel agent in Copenhagen; Willy Krüger : Julius Winterfeld, captain; Marga Maasberg : Berta Winterfeld;

Kressin stops the Nordexpress is a German television film by Wolfgang Menge and Rolf von Sydow . It is the seventh film in the Tatort series and the third episode starring customs inspector Kressin . It was first broadcast on German television on May 2, 1971 .

action

The felons Brockhoff and Katolli caught in Sweden , accompanied by detectives Kaufhold and Markowski, are transported by train - more precisely: the Nordexpress via Copenhagen and Puttgarden - from Malmö to Germany, as transport by plane seems too delicate with regard to possible liberation actions. However, this is exactly what the seedy gang boss Sievers is up to: He has brought together a large group of specialists in a remote property who are busily rehearsing the technical aspects of the railway to carry out an exemption for both of them: driving a locomotive , the duties of a train driver , the subtleties of the Zugpostfunks , even a dining car waiter is Blazed. All of them are supposed to gain control of the Nordexpress in an operation planned according to the general staff and bring it to a stop at a designated place on the open road - of course in a way that leaves the remaining passengers unsuspecting until the actual liberation.

Meanwhile, customs investigators Kressin that the investigation in a case of porn - smuggling uses in Copenhagen this to have some fun at the same time with his girlfriend Birgit, by his superior for urgent Cologne recalled; at his instruction also by train, since a flight is not readily available at short notice. The final deciding factor for the train journey, however, is a blonde, young woman who Kressin notices in the travel agency when she buys a ticket for the Nordexpress . Coincidentally, he later sees the same woman coming out of a sex shop with a heavy suitcase . On the train he arranges a seat next to her in the same compartment , her suitcase travels unobserved in the next compartment . Of course, Kressin, jack of all trades , immediately involves Pernille, the young woman's name, in a conversation.

A part of Sievers' gang meanwhile takes a waiting position in the restaurant of the Puttgarden ferry station . The individual members work in independent groups according to a precisely worked out schedule.

When Kressin is not hitting on Pernille, he passes the time by making extremely expensive, hand-held cellular phone calls in the writing compartment for expenses . Along the way, he learns from the train secretary, who makes him look good, that the train crew will change in Hamburg .

The train driver of the Nordexpress receives the order from the dispatcher at Puttgarden station to stop at Heringsdorf station unscheduled in order to let the member of the Bundestag from Stolz board on his trip to the federal capital. Meanwhile, the gangsters threaten a supervisory officer in the Puttgarden train station and thus gain access to the signal box, whose staff on duty they overpower. From now on you have control of all train traffic on the route.

Gradually, Sievers' people get on. They overpower the platoon leader , one of them, Doppel-Otto, slips into his role; The train secretary feels the same way. The wrong train driver compliments the passengers from the first car behind the locomotive , in which Brockhoff and Katolli are also sitting with their guards, under a pretext and into another car. The gangsters Bruno and Salomon - the latter of African American descent - climb into the rear driver's cab of the locomotive with the help of a folding ladder through a smashed window while driving . At this very moment the train passes a track construction site ; a construction worker observes the process, but is initially not taken seriously by his foreman ("There is a Negro climbed on the locomotive!" "). The train driver is also overwhelmed, but because of his fierce resistance there is an emergency brake . After Bruno has taken his place in the driver's cab, the train, now under direct control of the crooks, continues its journey.

What Bruno and Salomon have no idea of is the unscheduled stop in Heringsdorf. They promptly let the train pass, the supervisor stunned, leaving the MP behind them angrily. This little incident is watched by Kressin from the train window. Two travelers evacuated from the first car give Kressin the decisive clue about the two prisoners. Further clues prompt Kressin to call the customs council - his superior - in Cologne from the writing compartment, to whom he gives clauses clues about a possible liberation action. The now fake train secretary gossips unsuspectingly by pretending to Kressin, who knows better, that she will ride on the train to Cologne. Until then, the gangsters don't suspect anything.

At first, Kressin's superior doesn't know what he's talking about, but eventually it dawns on him what Kressin wanted to tell him. The customs council notifies the Hamburg police, but Inspector Trimmel is on vacation, so his assistant Höffgen goes to the overhead train line after some research.

Now good advice is expensive: the train has to stop and the numerous gangsters have to be overwhelmed. Independently of each other, Kressin and the officials around Höffgen forge plans to thwart the act. Kressin gathers some courageous fellow travelers around him, the criminal police have the train diverted to a siding at the Cloppenhoff switch , where a hundred of the riot police are expected to await him . However, the investigators do not yet know that the Puttgarden signal box is in the hands of the gangsters, and so Sievers' men manage to reset the switch at the last moment and let the train pass the police presence. But through this action, the gangsters in the signal box reveal themselves.

This heralds the swan song for the liberation action. The railway police can recapture the signal box and arrest the gangsters. Finally, Kressin and his colleagues also manage to overpower the crooks on the train. He himself also climbs onto the locomotive, frees the driver, who is tied up in the rear driver's cab, and lets him perform an emergency stop , until then unnoticed by the gangsters . Then the riot police arrive and arrest the gangsters.

Only Pernille's suitcase was damaged during the action: Due to the emergency braking, it fell from the luggage net to the floor, opened and scattered its contents over the entire train compartment ...

At the point on the route designated for liberation, the remaining gangsters are now waiting in vain for the train. Sievers himself leaves with Rolls-Royce and chauffeur .

background

The film offers a James Bond - Parody insights into the railway operations of the 1970s. Aspects of the signal box and train control technology as well as the driving service are illuminated. In addition, the Rødby - Puttgarden railway ferry service and numerous, meanwhile, historic locomotives and passenger coaches can be seen - even if they are not always in the right combinations.

Pop singer Gitte Hænning gives an acting performance as Kressin's friend Birgit at the beginning of the film.

Audience rating

The first broadcast of Kressin stops the Nordexpress on May 2, 1971, achieved a market share of 49.0 percent for Erste Deutsche Fernsehen .

Film bug

Before Kressin gets on, the Express changes locomotives several times during the journey to Copenhagen [ D series (large headlights at the top) or Rc (double headlights at the front)].
The gangsters broke into the locomotive by smashing the rear right pane. In a later shot you can see the locomotive with the window intact.
Even on the journey through Denmark, the train is pulled by a German class 221 locomotive .

Locations

Due to the theme, the film was shot on numerous original locations. First and foremost, various train stations along the Nordexpress route should be mentioned , in particular the Puttgarden ferry station . The exterior shots of the train were shot on the island of Fehmarn along the Puttgarden-Lübeck railway line . The so-called "Weiche Cloppenhoff" is actually the branch of the former Fehmarn island railway from the main line near Burg West . By the gang to free space provided is in reality the station Köln-Dellbrück . 50.982967 7.078577

music

Not only the well-known signature tune, but also all of the other film music was composed by Klaus Doldinger . Among other issues that comes here the scene - motif often modified for use.