Rex Resolution 46: Der Neue

And so we enter the eye candy phase......with a stunning debut by Mr. Wet T-Shirt himself, Alex Brandtner, aka Gedeon Burkhard.


If you visit Vienna and happen to stay at Hotel Das Triest, be careful not to open any doors to the next room. When the victim in this episode checks in, he notices the door joining his room to the next is ajar. Instead of closing it, he opens the door to the next room (a what was he thinking moment), discovering a couple of men with some very big guns and copping a broken neck as his reward. Obviously something big is afoot.

Meanwhile Boeck and Hoellerer are taking turns to care for Rex, who is missing Moser and refusing to leave Moser's house. Brandtner turns out to be a bit of a dog whisperer. Soon he's taking over care of Rex and Rex is back on the case.

When the body from the hotel turns up in the Danube, Hoellerer and Boeck are quick on the scene but not as fast as Brandtner, who executes a perfect dive, fully-clothed into the Danube. All to rescue some escaping evidence, the linen bag in which the body was dumped. With the body's face damaged and the finger tips removed, the bag is all the team have to go on.

As a female prosecutor arrives from Rome and meets with a journalist, the base story line becomes clearer. She is looking for evidence of mafia money laundering through Austrian banks and the journalist is set to help her. The guys with the guns? Out to shut her up. Unfortunately for her, they have her secretary in a tight spot, having kidnapped his wife. All her movements are reported back to the guys with guns.

The linen bag gets traced back to the Hotel Das Triest but the mangeress has no time to talk, until she sets her eyes on Brandtner that is. Boeck acts somewhat beleidigt. Aren't blondes supposed to have more fun? It turns out that a guest is missing and now they have the identity of the corpse in the Danube. When the connection to the next hotel room becomes apparent, tracing the Italian guest brings a dead end due to false identity. At that precise moment, the dead man's business contact shows up, picks up the presence of the police and runs for it, getting away. Have no fear though, Rex is back on the trail.

It's another red-herring. Purely about shady business deals.

When a hotel receptionist manages to provide a photofit of the Italian in the next room and the fingerprints of the Italian's Austrian accomplice, a convicted arms dealer, show up on the database, things start moving.

As the prosecuter and journalist set up a meeting in a restaurant with a bank's lawyer. the game is on. Sadly, this means death for some poor old lady who just happens to live in an apartment with a birdeye view of the restaurant. Waiting, waiting, waiting. When the meals on wheels lady gets no response and sees her body through the letterbox, the hitmen are busted. Aware that she has called an ambulance, they won't leave without their shot. Unfortunately for them, pussy has other ideas and stuffs up the hitman's aim. No one seems to notice the shot and they escape the scene.

When Brandtner turns up to investigate the old lady murder, he finds out the Italian was seen leaving the building. Looking around, Brandtner notices a bullet hole in the restaurant building but doesn't put it together unlike Moser would. Beauty versus brains, eh? Brandtner heads off with Boeck to arrest the Austrian accomplice but the accomplice whacks Boeck and escapes. Meanwhile Brandtner is left chasing the Italians. The Austrian gets Brandtner cornered and tells the Italians to leave, which they do but not before threatening to shoot Alex. Rex saves the day again, dropping a gun to Brandtner so he can take out the accomplice, thereby saving his life.

In a tight spot, the accomplice tells Brandtner what he can, which is little except for a mobile number he provided to the Italians. Listening in, they find out about a meeting scheduled for the morning outside of Vienna but the details are vague. When the meeting is set firm the next day, the prosecutor's secretary calls through to give the precise meeting place and time and Brandtner and team have the information they need.

With the pressure on to get there in time, action man Alex directs the search from above, sees the men planting a bomb and parachutes with Rex out of the plane. Good use of stuffed doggy in the distance shots, I think. Can't really be Rex, huh?

The bomb in place, the Italians are ready to take out the prosecutor but they hadn't counted on Alex and Rex. With the road blocked, the car is stopped just in time and the Italians are taken out, although not before setting the bomb off. Rex saves Alex yet again. Welcome back, Rex!

Other players include Maddalena Crippa , above, as prosecutor Lucia Amato, Emilio de Marchi as Mimmo Munafi, Antonio di Mauro , above, as Gianni Fedele, and Andrea Tiziani , above, as Franco Bianci.

Recycled Rexers Josefin Platt, above, here as the journalist Kramer, earlier in 'Blutrote Rosen' (1997) as Ines Dorner, and Andreas Lust, above, not credited with IMDB for this episode but also appearing as Herbert Weninger in 'Blond, huebsch, tot' (2002).