Death in the cold morning light

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Movie
German title Death in the cold morning light
Original title The Cold Light of Day
Country of production Netherlands
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Rudolf van den Berg
script Doug Magee
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (novel)
production Haig Balian
Chris Brouwer
Arnold Heslenfeld
Patricia McMahon
music Yves Elegeert
Stefan Truyman
camera Igor Luther
cut Kant Pan
occupation
synchronization

Death in the cold morning light (original title: The Cold Light of Day ) is a British-Dutch-German thriller from director Rudolf van den Berg from 1996 with Richard E. Grant , Lynsey Baxter , Perdita Weeks and Simon Cadell in the leading roles. The film was produced by Meteor Film Productions and is based on an idea by Friedrich Dürrenmatt , who worked out the material immediately after its first film adaptation of the novel entitled The Promise . Death in the cold morning light is, in the broadest sense, a remake of the film It Happened in Broad Daylight from 1958.

action

Viktor Marek is a young idealistic police officer. When he has to bring the sad news of the murder of a young girl to his parents, he swears to the mother that he will find the real culprit. His superior is the merciless police chief Pawel Nowak. He is less idealistic and more pragmatic shortly before his retirement. The unstable previous convicted stoner Alexi comes in handy as a suspect, who has attracted the attention of the police through some incriminating evidence. He puts the man under tough psychological pressure because he suspects him to be the wanted serial killer . Only Marek believes in the man's innocence. The police chief uses his brutal interrogation methods to force a confession from Alexi, who in this context also confesses to three other murders in the recent past, which have taken place according to the same pattern. All the girls were found with their throats surgically cut. When Alexi is found dead - hanged - in his cell the next morning, the case seems to have been settled. The convicted perpetrator has committed suicide in a hopeless situation and as an admission of his guilt . It is only Marek who, in turn, has doubts about Alexi's guilt and who thereupon throws gauntlets down to the officials who are narrow-minded in his opinion by quitting his service and investigating the case on his own account. With the only piece of evidence - a child's drawing showing a dark man, a black car, a red castle and a dog and red snakes - he sets out to track down the real culprit.

When, by chance, he made the acquaintance of the young, open-minded girl Anna, who lives with her mother on the outskirts of town in a wooded area in an old railroad car, he comes up with a daring plan. Marek rents his computer into an old gas station on a busy road to the next town. He suspects the perpetrator to be in the city because he committed all the murders in the immediate vicinity of this street. He befriends the girl and is also able to convince her attractive mother Milena to join him as a housekeeper in the old gas station and the main building that belongs to it. There he meticulously, almost obsessively, noted down the license plates of all passing black cars with the license plate number of the nearby town in which he claims to have recognized the coat of arms with the Red Castle on the drawing of the recently murdered girl.

After he has installed a swing for Anna at the petrol station, which is open to every passing customer, but also clearly visible from the main building, he waits patiently. The plan with Anna as a decoy seems to work, a doctor from the nearby town is the culprit. The mentally unstable doctor wins the little girl's trust and lures Anna into the forest a third time after two meetings. Meanwhile, Marek has taken Milena into his confidence about his double-edged dangerous plan to catch a serial killer. He is now being confronted by his former colleagues after a former psychiatrist friend , whom Marek had let in on his plan, betrayed his unauthorized methods to the police. Just as the perpetrator is about to strike again, Marek is rudely asked for an interrogation at the gas station. Marek sees the black car of the murderer, which has parked on the edge of the forest, and Anna knows that her life is in danger. He provokes an accident with the police car, crawls out of the wrecked car, takes the gun of a battered officer and rushes into the nearby forest to look for Anna. Just in time he finds the girl in the clutches of the psychopath, just before the psychopath can commit another murder. The doctor forces him to hand the gun to him by holding a razor to the girl's throat. Marek does it so as not to endanger Anna's life. Shortly before the doctor can shoot Marek, Milena appears with Marek's service revolver on the scene; she noticed Anna's disappearance, followed the trail into the forest and is now facing the perpetrator. She shoots the psychopath. The doctor flees into his parked car and is shot through the windshield by Milena .

In the end, Marek, Anna and Milena move into town together to leave the horrors of the recent past behind.

synchronization

Martin Keßler directed the German dialogue and also played the leading role.

role actor Dubbing voice
Viktor Marek Richard E. Grant Martin Keßler
Milena Tatour Lynsey Baxter Daniela Strietzel
Anna Tatour Perdita Weeks
Vladimir Kozant (serial killer) Simon Cadell Joachim Tennstedt
Pavel Novak James Laurenson Christian Rode
Alexi Berka Thom Hoffman Stefan Fredrich

Production notes

Production designer was Zdenek Flemming, Libuse Barlova, Derrick Bosch and Dick Naastepad were responsible as make-up artists, the costumes were provided by Linda Bogers and the production management was carried out by Jan Bílek and Tomas Gabris. The film was set in the Czech Republic .

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