This episode has a number of peculiarities. For the first time there is no voice-over at all. And "Strandkorb 421" features the only undercover police officer in the whole series. Hellmut Lange, police officer in the very first episode returns to the series as an individual who's identity is not known till the very end. Kurt Jaggberg and a bunch of other regulars of the show are playing the officially investigating policemen.
The majority of the action takes place on Norderney, a small island living mainly on tourism. This episode also has the by far longest pre-title sequence! In fact, one forgets completely that the usual Stahlnetz title card and music did not come up. But then, at 25 minutes into the show! There it is. Somehow weird! The story is quite engaging and definitely one of the best of the series. Hellmut Lange plays a kind of gentleman with a dubious past and there are many jokes about policemen trying to not be discovered as policemen. Considering the knowledge, that Wolfagang menge, who wrote all original Stahlnetz episodes was less and less inclined the praise the work of German police (evidently because of many scandals that happened in the 50ies and 60ies) he can up with this cuckoo's egg. Apparently he is making fun of some policemen but this is overlooked (in the end) by the fact that one of the questionable characters of the story is a police specialist who unveils the real criminals!
Of all episodes, this one has the least feeling of being a true crime story. Once again, we know from the beginning who the criminals are and what they are up to. But a large part of the entertainment comes through the strange behavior of Hellmut Lange, playing cat and mouse with the criminals, the police and certainly with the viewers as well. One can tell that he really enjoyed this role. And as always, a fair number of regulars from the show pop up every now and then. It is, this is also quite worth mentioning, one of the funniest episodes.
The majority of the action takes place on Norderney, a small island living mainly on tourism. This episode also has the by far longest pre-title sequence! In fact, one forgets completely that the usual Stahlnetz title card and music did not come up. But then, at 25 minutes into the show! There it is. Somehow weird! The story is quite engaging and definitely one of the best of the series. Hellmut Lange plays a kind of gentleman with a dubious past and there are many jokes about policemen trying to not be discovered as policemen. Considering the knowledge, that Wolfagang menge, who wrote all original Stahlnetz episodes was less and less inclined the praise the work of German police (evidently because of many scandals that happened in the 50ies and 60ies) he can up with this cuckoo's egg. Apparently he is making fun of some policemen but this is overlooked (in the end) by the fact that one of the questionable characters of the story is a police specialist who unveils the real criminals!
Of all episodes, this one has the least feeling of being a true crime story. Once again, we know from the beginning who the criminals are and what they are up to. But a large part of the entertainment comes through the strange behavior of Hellmut Lange, playing cat and mouse with the criminals, the police and certainly with the viewers as well. One can tell that he really enjoyed this role. And as always, a fair number of regulars from the show pop up every now and then. It is, this is also quite worth mentioning, one of the funniest episodes.
