Crime scene: Dead pigeon in Beethovenstrasse

Episode of the series Tatort
Original title	Dead pigeon in Beethovenstrasse
Country of production	Germany
original language	English , German
Production ; company	WDR
length	98-105 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
classification	Episode 25 ( List )
First broadcast	January 7, 1973 on Das Erste
Rod
Director	Samuel Fuller
script	Samuel Fuller
production	Joachim von Mengershausen
music	The Can
camera	Jerzy Lipman
cut	Liesgret Schmitt-Klink
occupation
	Glenn Corbett : Sandy; Christa Lang : Christa; Sieghardt Rupp : Kressin ; Anton Diffring : scale length; Stéphane Audran : Stephanie; Eric P. Caspar : Charlie Umlaut; William Ray : Luthini; Alex D'Arcy : Mr. Novak; Anthony Chin : Mr. Fong; Verena Reichel :; Hans C. Blumenberg : Fritz Spindel; Viktor B. Olason :; Addy Meyer :; Willy Stork :; Barry Jones :; Peter Lilienthal :; Fritz Gazerra :; Petra Falvini : Petra; Jean Michel Tanguy :; Hermann Langewiesche :; Edith Langewiesche :; Georg Thompson :; Wolfgang Weber:;

The feature film Dead Taube in Beethovenstrasse is a television film in the crime series Tatort from 1973. It is set mainly in Bonn and Cologne . It was written and shot by the American Samuel Fuller , which is a special feature of the Tatort series. In 1974 it was also shown as a feature film in the USA . The unusually staged film appeared to the German audience as irritating and incomprehensible when it was first broadcast; some critics today assign it historical significance as a formal experiment.

action

An American private detective is shot dead in Bonn and the murderer Charlie Umlaut is arrested. The German authorities suspect a connection with drug trafficking and put customs investigator Kressin on the case. Sandy, the dead man's partner, travels from the USA and tells Kressin about the case they are investigating: An American presidential candidate is blackmailed with a photo that shows him with a stranger.

When Umlaut escapes and Kressin is injured to the point of hospitalization, Sandy carries out the investigation. In Cologne, he shadows Christa, the woman depicted in the photo, anesthetizes her with a pill that he puts in her coffee, and lets himself be photographed with her. He then mounts the head of an Italian politician in the photos . He explains to her that he wants to get into the blackmail business.

Christa reports from Sandy to Mensur, who heads an international blackmailer ring from Bonn. He has the detective kidnapped and brought to work in his organization. Together with Christa he is assigned to an African politician whom they stun at a conference on the Petersberg and photograph with Christa in a compromising way.

Then Sandy and Christa meet for a romantic picnic on the Drachenfels , but are surprised and threatened by Umlaut who seems to be suffering from drugs or madness. They then received the next order from Mensur, which concerns a Chinese diplomat in Essen . Here they argue for the first time because Christa Sandy's behavior is too rough, which she also complains about at Mensur. One also learns that Charlie Umlaut is falling out of favor with Mensur because of his drug problems.

Then they are assigned to a European politician whom they follow on a ship on the Rhine. He does not show himself to be blackmailed, but even pleased about the incriminating images, because he would like an image as a bon vivant. Then Christa shows great doubts about her activities and her whole life. She confesses her love to Sandy, whereupon he explains his investigation. Together they plan to outsmart Mensur and secure the negative of the recordings with the US politician.

As the last assignment, Christa approaches a minister in Cologne. When she meets with Sandy in the middle of a carnival procession, they are discovered and attacked by Umlaut, Sandy kills him in an unarmed fight. The two go back to Bonn. In a back room of the university fencing room, Sandy meets Mensur, who exposes him as a detective and challenges him to a fencing duel. Sandy is far inferior to the professional, but then defends herself with the entire collection of medieval weapons hanging on the walls and can finally kill Mensur with a battle ax, but is also injured himself. He takes the film negative with him.

But then Christa appears, threatens him with a pistol and wants the negative for himself. Sandy flees, is caught up with and shot by her in the same street where his partner was initially killed. Christa believes she has killed him and weeps over the loss, Sandy is still alive and shoots her. Finally, he mourns her betrayal and death.

background

Samuel Fuller (1987)

This episode of the Tatort series was produced by Bavaria Atelier on behalf of WDR . Previously, all episodes of Tatort were directed exclusively by Germans, now the WDR decided to ask the American Samuel Fuller , who is known for hard action and thriller works, for a contribution. He wrote the script in a few days and also processed experiences with the region that he had made in 1945 as a soldier in World War II . From the beginning it was planned to bring the film to the cinemas after the Tatort broadcast.

The scene that takes place during a parade in Cologne's Carnival was originally intended to be shot during the big Rose Monday parade . After the 10,000 DM demanded by the train organizers was too much for the producers, a train was re-enacted by the carnival society "Kuniberts Ritter" for a donation of 5000 DM for the problem child campaign .

In the previous episodes of the crime scene of the WDR, customs investigator Kressin, played by Sieghardt Rupp , was the main investigator. In “Dead Taube in Beethovenstrasse” he only played this role in the opening minutes, the main role here was that of the private detective Sandy, who was cast by the American Glenn Corbett , who is mainly known for western roles . The main female role was taken on by the director's wife Christa Lang . Except for Rupp's lines, the film was shot entirely in English and subsequently dubbed in German , which is also a novelty in the Tatort series.

The camera work was carried out by Jerzy Lipman from Poland . The music came from the avant-garde band Can from Cologne , referred to as "The Can" in the credits.

One of the locations: Electoral Palace Bonn

Fuller himself commented on the punch line of the story with "The strongest love affair becomes unimportant when money is involved" and the style of the film as a "thriller with a lot of humor". According to Olaf Karnik , central stylistic devices are, in addition to the unusual camera, editing and music style, a “narrative structure of breaks” and a “recoding” of scenes. Many well-known sights of the region are visited in the course of the action and become the scene of “inappropriate” events such as fights or quarrels. These include the Bonn Weststadt with the eponymous Beethovenstraße, the Rolandseck train station , the Cologne Cathedral and the Hohe Straße , the Electoral Palace (main building of the University of Bonn ), Bonn Central Station , the Beethoven House , the Petersberg and Drachenfels in the Siebengebirge and the Hofgarten .

Reception and reviews

When it was first broadcast by ARD on January 7, 1973, “Dead Taube in Beethovenstrasse” had an audience of 59 percent. The audience reaction was extremely negative. In 1974, Der Spiegel wrote that the crime scene was "cursed by the public as the 'greatest cheese of the century'" and "a failure (on a higher level)". The Bonner General-Anzeiger wrote in retrospect in 2009 that when it was first broadcast, numerous viewers had complained by phone to the broadcaster about the difficult-to-follow plot. Fuller "put the audience's viewing habits to the test".

A criticism from the broadcast week in the Spiegel was mixed, Fuller brought "an unusual claim and a touch of the broader film world" and it "play reality and film in a meaningful way", but the episode was also "kept cool and for that reason probably not one of the strongest Fuller- Works ".

From today's perspective, cinema.de writes: “Once a highlight of the 'Tatort' series - at that time a daring experiment, today an outdated cabinet piece.” The General-Anzeiger judges more positively: “Even if the reaction of the criticism was rather negative, that applies The work of the eccentric director has long been considered a curious jewel of German television history. ”Despite the mediocre quality of the plot, dialogues and actors, the film is formally remarkable due to its“ experimental character ”.

“Dead Taube in Beethovenstrasse” was repeated nine times on ARD, WDR, 1Plus, ARTE and SF 1 until 2010 . The film was released in the United States in September 1974.

A revised version of this crime scene was published on DVD on November 18, 2010.

literature

Samuel Fuller: Dead Dove in Beethovenstrasse . Translator: Walter Hasenclever. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 1973.
Rembert Hüser: Dead Uncle Mailbox. In: Anna Häusler, Jan Henschen (ed.): Topos Tatort. Fictions of the Real Transcript, Bielefeld, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1510-4 , pp. 153-167.