Thank you for your interest, your fidelity and your trust.
We wish you in advance all the best for 2023.
Wednesday 28 December 2022
Thursday 22 December 2022
A CASE FOR TWO (EIN FALL FÜR ZWEI) - SEASON 3 ON DVD (ELEPHANT FILMS)
To Monique Planson.
The cult German crime drama A Case for Two (Ein Fall für zwei) ran for 300 episodes between 1981 and 2013 on ZDF. Its third season is now available in France on DVD in the "Un cas pour deux - Intégrale saison 3" boxset (All Zone, 7 one-hour episodes) from Elephant Films.
Ein Fall für zwei was born from an idea by scriptwriters/producers Georg Althammer and Karl Heinz Willschrei, who wanted to create a crime drama whose main character wouldn't be a cop or an amateur sleuth. Experts in their craft, they worked for Bavaria Atelier on detective dramas like Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre (1967-1976). Karl Heinz Willschrei wrote the espionage series Alexander Zwo (1972) and several episodes of Tatort (1) or Der Alte (between 1977 and 1979). Althammer and Willschrei founded their own production company, called Monaco Film, in 1976. A subsidiary named Galmon-Film (later Odeon Film) was set up in 1981 to produce Ein Fall für zwei for the Freitagskrimi (Friday crime drama) line-up of ZDF. The concept pitched to the channel was a duo composed of a young lawyer and an experienced private eye. When Georg Althammer and Karl Heinz Willschrei were told that the great actor Günter Strack (The Odessa File, Torn Curtain) wanted to be in a TV series, they changed the tandem for an experienced lawyer — to be played by Strack — and a young detective.
Georg Althammer gave the role of the private investigator to Claus Theo Gärtner. Regularly on stage like Günter Strack, Gärtner won of the Deutscher Filmpreis of the Best young actor for the film Zoff (1972). He played in the 1977 sci-fi TV movie Operation Ganymed and starred in the series Die Straße (1978). Ein Fall für zwei was launched by ZDF in September 1981 with a pilot where Josef Matula
(Gärtner), a Frankfurt police officer who quit the force, became the personal P.I.
of lawyer Dr. Dieter Renz (Strack). Günter Strack left Ein Fall für zwei
in 1988 after 60 episodes and the billiard player detective teamed up
with three other lawyers during the impressively long run of the series (2). In autumn 2011, Claus Theo Gärtner expressed his desire to leave after 30 years as Josef Matula and he bowed out with the 300th episode in March 2013. Surprisingly, ZDF decided to revamp Ein Fall für Zwei around another
attorney and private detective duo. The new version started in May
2014, with the same title and even a cameo of Claus Theo Gärtner (in
2015) but without the famous theme music by jazz musician and
television/film composer Klaus Doldinger (3).
Co-produced by ORF (Austria) and SRG (Switzerland) and sold in more than 50 countries, Ein Fall für Zwei arrived
in France in 1991 and the series is regularly repeated there. For a long
time, Klaus Doldinger's theme was replaced by a local intro but it was
restored for French repeats and DVDs. The "Un cas pour deux - Intégrale saison 3" boxset from Elephant Films contains the 7 episodes of this perfect 3rd season, shown on ZDF between January and November 1983.
- Zwielicht. An excellent episode written by Peter Hemmer (Tatort) and directed by Eugen York. Dr. Renz's cleaning lady worries for her grandson. The young man is arrested for drug trafficking. With Barbara Rudnik (Sigrid Vorholz), Peter Sattmann (Erich Drigalski), Liesel Christ (Mrs Schreber), Gerhard Theisen (Georg Schreber), etc.
- Das Opfer. Penned by the maestro Karl Heinz Willschrei and helmed by Michael Lähn. Matula becomes the bodyguard of Almut Nolde (Cornelia Froebess) after someone tried to kill her. With Bernd Ripken (Harald Nolde), Claus Eberth (Georg Wilke), Claus-Dieter Reents (Kommissar).
- Herr Pankratz, bitte!. A very good episode written by Wolfgang Mühlbauer (Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre) and directed by Eugen York. Mr. Pankratz (Wolgang Bathke, Im namen des Gesetzes) is accused of murder.
- Der Zeuge. A man is found dead after an argument with his wife. Written by Karl Heinz Willschrei and directed by Hans-Jürgen Tögel. The great Hannelore Elsner, who later became Lea Sommer in Die Kommissarin
(1994-2006) (4), plays Janine Krüger. With Sky du Mont (another great actor) as a bartender!
- Tödliches Viereck. A jigsaw puzzle penned by Manfred D. Lisson and helmed by Theo Mezger. With Monika Lundi (Karin Werner), Peter Arens (Dr. Werner), Claudia Wedekind (Susanne Krüger), Arthur Brauss (Harald Krüger), Ulli Kinalzik, etc.
- Strich durch die Rechnung. Agnes Beaufort (Edda Pastor), a friend of Dr. Renz who married a French industrialist, is kidnapped while in Frankfurt. Written by Karl Heinz Willschrei and directed by Theo Mezger. With Harald Leipnitz (Claude Beaufort), Dieter Eppler, Lis Verhoeven, etc.
- Die große Wut des kleinen Paschirbe. A masterpiece penned by German crime writer -ky, the pseudonym of sociologist, author and scriptwriter Horst Bosetzky. Heinz Schubert (Ein Herz und eine Seele) (5) is amazing as Paschirbe, a man who thinks he has found an opportunity for revenge. Wolfgang Preiss (the Mabuse movies) appears as Alfred Rohloff. With Louise Martini (Eva Fuhrmann), Harald Kuhlmann (Hans-Joachim Rimbach), Sylvia Haider (Erika Rimbach). Helmed by Michael Lähn.
From 2017 and 2019, Claus Theo Gärtner returned to his signature role for three 90-minute specials. Season 8 of the revamped Ein Fall für zwei was shown last spring on ZDF. The 7 episodes of the "Un
cas pour deux - Intégrale saison 3" boxset are available in French and in German (without subtitles). Bonus material consists of a
photo gallery and the trailers of some other titles of Elephant
Films, like Mike Hammer (with Stacy Keach), Frank Riva (starring Alain Delon), Commissaire Valence, etc. German crime cult dramas Derrick and Der Alte are available from Elephant too and reviewed on this blog.
(1) The crime drama collection of ARD, launched in 1970 and still aired today. Karl Heinz Willschrei penned 10 Tatort TV movies, including the most watched episode ever, Rot - rot - rot (26.57 million viewers in 1978).
(2) Dr. Rainer Frank (Rainer Hunold, 1988-1997), Dr. Johannes Voss (Mathias Hermann, 1997-2000) and Dr. Markus Lessing (Paul Frielinghaus, 2001-2013).
(3) Founder of the band Passport, Klaus Doldinger composed the music of classics such as The Neverending Story (Die unendliche Geschichte, 1984) and Das Boot (1981) or the theme of Tatort.
(4) Co-created by Georg Althammer.
(5) Ein Herz und eine Seele (1973-1976) was the German version of the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part (1965-1975), itself adapted in the U.S. as All in the Family (1971-1979).
http://www.elephantfilms.com/
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2018/04/matula-der-schatten-des-berges-zdf.html (Matula #2)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2019/04/matula-tod-auf-mallorca-zdf.html (Matula #3)
See also:
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-case-for-two-ein-fall-fur-zwei-season.html (Ein Fall für zwei - Season 2 on DVD)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-case-for-two-ein-fall-fur-zwei-season.html (Ein Fall für zwei - Season 1 on DVD)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2017/04/matula-zdf_28.html (Matula #1)https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2018/04/matula-der-schatten-des-berges-zdf.html (Matula #2)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2019/04/matula-tod-auf-mallorca-zdf.html (Matula #3)
Friday 16 December 2022
THE OLD FOX (DER ALTE) - SEASON 11 ON DVD (ELEPHANT FILMS)
Der Alte ("The Old Man") was launched in 1977 on ZDF by producer Helmut Ringelmann as the successor to Der Kommissar, a series made by his company Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion for the pubcaster. Set in Munich, Der Kommissar ran from 1969 to 1976 and starred Erik Ode as Kommissar Herbert Keller. The first Freitagskrimi (1) of the channel lasted 97 episodes, all penned by Herbert Reinecker. The scriptwriter also wrote each of the 281 episodes of Derrick, a crime drama devised by Ringelmann and Reinecker as an alternative
to Der Kommissar (2) — though set in Munich too — and aired on ZDF from 1974 to
1998.
Karl Heinz Willschrei, one of the scriptwriters of the series, co-created Ein Fall für zwei (1981-2013) for ZDF. At the end of 1984, Siegfried Lowitz expressed his desire to leave Der Alte
with the 100th episode (aired in January 1986) and return to theatre.
Helmut Ringelmann gave the role of the new boss of Mordkomission II, Hauptkommissar Leo Kress, to Rolf Schimpf. Ringelmann noticed the actor in Der Sheriff von Lisenbach (1984) and first hired him in Mensch Bachmann, a family series he produced the same year. Schimpf was no stranger to the crime genre because he played Waldi Zeldmann in SOKO 5113 since 1978. Gerd Heymann remained but Martin Brenner got transferred. The Polizeiarzt ("police doctor") played by Ulf J. Sohmisch since 1983 stayed a few years more but never got a proper name.
Leo Kress came from Augsburg with his own assistant, Henry Johnson.
This black detective (a first in the history of German TV) was based on
a real-life black investigator from the Munich police named Raimund Eichner and he was portrayed by Charles M. Huber (credited Charly Muhamed Huber). A new theme intro, composed by Eberhard Schoener, replaced the theme by Peter Thomas. Sold in more than 100 countries, Der Alte arrived in France in 1987 as Le Renard. The "Le Renard - Intégrale Saison 11" 6-disc DVD boxset contains the 12 episodes of this almost perfect 11th season, shown on ZDF between January and December 1987.
- Tod eines Piraten. A young man tries to break into his
own house. A great episode written by Volker Vogeler and
directed by Zbyněk Brynych, with excellent performances from
Claude-Oliver Rudolph (Fritz) and Christoph Eichorn
(Patrick Killian). Werner Schnitzer (Ruprecht)
later played Hahne in Siska (1998-2008), the successor to
Derrick (5). Tobias Ringelmann,
Helmut's son, appears in the (fictional) film at the beginning.
- Der sanfte Tod. A couple calls the police because their neighbour has been listening loudly to the same song for hours. Scriptwriters Günter Gräwert (who also helmed this episode) and Adolf Schröder tackle homosexuality. The song used as a leitmotiv is Why by composer, singer and hit maker Frank Duval. Duval worked regularly for both Derrick and Der Alte. With Tobias Hoesl (Jens), Eva Kryll (Barbara), Edgar Selge (Erich), Enzi Fuchs (Mrs Heinzen) and a pre-Tatort Miroslav Nemec.
- Die Abrechnung. It's laundry day for Kress and his daughter Sabine (Bettina Redlich) when a young woman falls from a window. This death is related to a murder and drug trafficking in Malaysia. Written by Volker Vogeler and directed by Zbyněk Brynych. Tobias Hoesl returns in a different role. With Ursula Karven.
- Tod von Schalterschluß. Journalist, novelist and scriptwriter Max Pierre Schaeffer wrote this brilliant episode directed by Günter Gräwert. A bank robber kills a woman during a hold-up. Evelyn Opela (Mrs Helmut Ringelmann) plays Gitta Graf. Gert Burkhard appeared in many episodes of Der Alte and Derrick, in different roles. The end title song is called Speech Behind Speech (1978). It's one of the collaborations of Eberhard Schoener with Sting, Andy Summers and later Stewart Copeland before The Police became famous.
- Wie das Leben so spielt. A photograph witnesses a double murder. An excellent episode written by Volker Vogeler and directed by Dietrich Haugk. Guest starring Eleonore Weisgerber, Ralf Schermuly, Udo Schenk, Ulli Kinalzik, etc.
- Werwischte Spuren. The firemen receive a strange emergency phone call. Rosel Zech (Veronika Voss, Lola) plays Gabrielle Lohmann. With Sven Eric Bechtolf and Enzi Fuchs. Written and directed by Günter Gräwert.
- Ultimo. A fabulous episode penned by Volker Vogeler and helmed by Zbyněk Brynych. Albert Kozak (Ulrich Haupt) is back from hospital after a murder attempt. Swiss actor Christian Kohlund (Der Zürich-Krimi, Black Forest Clinic) is Holger Kozak. With Susanne Uhlen, Gerd Baltus, Gerd Burkhard, etc. The song heard during the superb ending is Rhine-Bow (1978) by Eberard Schoener with Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland.
- Ein teuflischer Plan. Another gem from Volker Vogeler, directed by Alfred Weidenmann. An accountant kills himself in his office and a bankrupt man is found dead by his wife. Edgar Selge returns in a different role. With Reinhild Solf, Harald Leipnitz, Peter Bongartz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gerd Burkhard, etc.
- Die letzte Nacht. Sentenced for rape, Hans Steiger (Will Danin) is released after years in jail. With Christine Buchegger, Sissy Höfferer, Beate Finck, Esther Hausmann, Ulli Kinalzik, etc. The melancholic song of this episode is I Want To Be Free, composed by Günther Ress and performed by Edna Bejarano.
- Alibi: Mozart. Max Pierre Schaefer and Günther Gräwert team up for this classic about the murder of a pianist directed by Zbyněk Brynych. Second guest role of Evelyn Opela this season. Also with Gerd Böckmann, Anja Jaenicke, Franz Boehm, Tommi Piper, etc.
- Der Stichtag. A conundrum from Max Pierre Schaefer and Günther Gräwert, directed by the latter. A company director takes a night train with his secretary. With Udo Vioff, a frequent guest star of Der Alte and Derrick.
- Mord ist Mord. A supermarket manager and his mistress are surprised by two robbers. Penned by Volker Vogeler and helmed by Zbyněk Brynych. Rosel Zech is back in a different role. With Thekla Carola Wied, Winfried Glatzeder, Philipp Moog, etc.
In 1998, Leo Kress and his men appeared in the final episode of Derrick. Kress retired at the end of the 322nd episode (2007) but Rolf Schimpf returned as the ex-detective in Episode 340. He was succeeded by Walter Kreye as Hauptkommissar Rolf Herzog (2008-2012) and Jan-Gregor Kremp (Hauptkommissar Richard Voss,
2012-2022). Michael Ande decided to leave the series in 2016 after 39
years as Gerd Heymann. Charles M. Huber left in 1997 and was replaced by Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss as Axel Richter until
2015. Huber changed career for politics and humanitarian work.
The episodes of the "Le Renard - Intégrale Saison 11" boxset are in French and in German (without subtitles). Bonus material consists of a
photo gallery and the trailers of some other titles of Elephant
Films, like Hunter
(with Fred Dryer), Fantasy Island, Commissaire Moulin, Ein Fall für zwei and Derrick. Next year Thomas Heinze will be the new Hauptkommissar of Der Alte.
(1) Friday crime drama.
(2) Unlike Der Kommissar, Derrick was filmed in colour and produced by Helmut Ringelmann's other company Telenova for ZDF, ORF and SRG.
(4) The team was later completed by Meyer Zwo (Wolgang Zerlett, 1979-1987), Löwinger (Jan Meyer, 1985-1986) and Marküs Böttcher as Werner Riedmann (1986-2015).
(5) Produced by Helmut Ringelmann.
See also:
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2022/10/derrick-season-3-on-dvd-elephant-films.html (Derrick - Season 3 on DVD)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2022/06/derrick-seasons-1-2-french-region-2-dvd.html (Derrick - Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-case-for-two-ein-fall-fur-zwei-season.html (Ein Fall für zwei - Season 2 on DVD)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-case-for-two-ein-fall-fur-zwei-season.html (Ein Fall für zwei - Season 1 on DVD)
Monday 5 December 2022
ÇA TOURNE MAL... À LA TÉLÉ! (PHILIPPE LOMBARD, ÉDITIONS LA TENGO)
[Favourite of the Month] In Ça tourne mal... à la télé!, his exciting new book, Philippe Lombard visits a turbulent and little known aspect of the history of TV series.
Film and television specialist Philippe Lombard wrote books on The Persuaders, Starsky and Hutch, The Pink Panther, OSS 117, Tintin, Michel Audiard, Louis de Funès, Quentin Tarantino, etc. Published by Éditions La Tengo, Ça tourne mal... à la télé! is a follow-up to his Ça tourne mal! and Ça tourne mal... à Hollywood! (1). The astute idea of this collection is to tell anecdotes about what went wrong, what didn't turned as planned, the glitches behind the scenes. After French cinema and Hollywood movies, TV series get the "Ça tourne mal!" treatment for our greatest enjoyment.
A series can begin with a pilot but most pilots never turn into a series. Ça tourne mal... à la télé! logically starts with the "busted pilots", those which didn't make it and often for obvious reasons (Wishman, Poochinski). U.S. network CBS recycled many of their unsold pilots in a 1987 "anthology" called CBS Summer Playhouse, including a new version of The Saint with a moustachioed Simon Templar in a Lamborghini. Before Quantum Leap, Scott Bakula starred in I-Man (1986) and Infiltrator (1987). With a little luck a pilot can be reshoot for another try and become a hit series (The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones). Occasionally, a pilot is made as an episode of an existing series. It's called a backdoor pilot and success is never guaranteed. Ask Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch, who briefly opened a detective agency with a friend.
Similarly to pilots, actor come and go. Yvan Chiffre almost played the title role in Thierry La Fronde. Elizabeth Sheperd was Mrs Peel in The Avengers before Diana Rigg. There are the stars who stopped at nothing to leave their shows, such as Steve McQueen or Farrah Fawcett, the stars who came back (Patrick Duffy, John Schneider and Tom Wopat...) and the guest star who never was (Jeanne Moreau in ER). Long before social networks, French television had to face outraged reactions because of the intended ending of Janique Aimée (1963) or a surreal animated programme called Les Shadoks (when launched in 1968). During the 1980s, France answered to Dallas with Chateauvallon and director Jean-Luc Godard was hired by TF1 to make an episode of the collection Série Noire for a surprising result.
Ça tourne mal... à la télé! continues with the animated tribulations of Tintin, Astérix, Grendizer, Il était une fois..., Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rambo. Philippe Lombard also looks at some American and French TV attempts to cash in on known movies: Rosemary's Baby, High Noon, The Dirty Dozen, Indiana Jones, Les spécialistes or the Jean-Paul Belmondo starrer Le Magnifique! The book examines two high-profile projects not spared by failure (SeaQuest DSV and Marseille with Gérard Depardieu), series which reached cult status after cancellation (Police Squad!, Manimal, Profit...) and surprising/weird ideas like the japanese Spider-Man, Astrolab 22 or Duval et Moretti (the French adaptation of Starsky et Hutch). Ça tourne mal... à la télé! concludes with (what else?) the series finales.
Readers will even find a chapter about dubbing and more. Well researched and smartly thought, Ça tourne mal... à la télé! by Philippe Lombard is both interesting and joyful. French illustrator and graphic artist Mr Choubi (real name Patrick Chevalier) is behind the amazing artistic design of the book. Philippe Lombard is a regular collaborator for the magazine Schnock and other publications.
(1) https://boutique.la-tengo.com/home/140-ca-tourne-mal-.html + https://boutique.la-tengo.com/home/147-ca-tourne-mal-a-hollywood-.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)