Rex Resolution 42: Lebendig begraben

Series 4 and so marks the beginning of the end for Moser, although if the poll here carried any weight, he'd be reincarnated in the new series of Rex to be filmed in Vienna. Hpe springs eternal!


I found myself getting distracted in this episode by the fact that the main guest actor seemed to resemble Hugh Grant. I was waiting for the occasional handsweep through the floppy hair and that Grant smirk to appear at any moment.


When a garage owner finds himself under financial stress, he hatches a plan to kidnap his daughter's best friend, who, as luck would have it, is the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. He constructs a metal tube and buries it in a quarry in order to hide the girl once he's snatched her. However, his well thought out plans go astray when a florist tries to intervene as he takes the child and he shoots her dead. So reminiscent of the last epiosde: flowers and shooting!


Investigating the murder, Rex comes across the abducted child's gym bag. When Moser follows up on this clue, he senses all is not what it should be when the father is evasive about the child'swhereabouts. When he overhears the father discussing the kidnapping, Moser gers invovled. Tailing the father to the money handover, things go wrong when Moser loses sight of the perpetrator and has to issue an alert for his car. Unfortunately, when a motorcycle cop spots it and confronts the man, a shot out ensues and the kidnapper is shot dead before he can say where the child is.

Lucky for Moser, forensic evidence directs him to a Viennese quarry where, wouldn't you guess, he recovers the girl from her underground prison in the nick of time.

Other players include Helmut Berger , above, as kidnapper Guenther Stein, Cornelia Lauter, not registered with IMDB, and Brigitte Antonius, above, as the kidnapped child's grandmother but not credited with IMDB for this episode.

Recycled Rexers Lisa Tatzber, above, as Paula, the kidnapped child's friend, not credited with IMDb for this episode but also appearing in 'Das Maedchen und der Moerder' (2001), Florentin Groll, above, as the industrialist, not credited with IMDB for this episode but also appearing in 'Ein perfekter Mord' (1994) as Hubert Felsner and Elisabeth Lanz, appearing as Frau Stein in 'Lebendig begraben' and also uncredited for 'Stockis letzter Fall'.