Rex Resolution 59: Truegerische Naehe

After a night of champagne and oysters, a couple fall out when the woman, Susanne, refuses to leave her husband for her lover, Guenther. Arguing at the side of the road, the man slips down an embankment, hitting his head on a rock. Panicking, thinking that he's dead, she calls her husband for help. When he confirms the bad news, he helps her remove all traces of her presence from the nearby house where the lovers had met.

With the body discovered and Graf on the scene, it becomes apparent that what was initially thought to be an accident is in fact a murder, thanks to a second head injury completely unrelated to the fall. When they check out the house, a caretaker informs them that Guenther had been using the house for secret trysts. Finding the take out trash in the bin, a quick call ascertains the presence of Susanne, who had paid with her credit card.

Guenther's wife is understandably upset. When Susanne and her husband are taken in for questioning and a crime scene re-enactment, Rex provides some pretty solid evidence that the pair were at the scene. It looks grim until some further evidence steers the investigation in an unexpected direction.

Brandtner asks Guenther's wife if she knew of the affair, she denies it but seems to show little emotion, even when told Susanne has been released without charge. It's just the calm before the storm. Shortly afterwards, she heads over to Susanne's with murderous intent. Under the guise of 'having to talk', she laces Susanne's drink with something nasty and types up a suicide note, before leaving her unconscious. Susanne recovers sufficiently to call emergency services and mutter 'Brandtner' before passing out again. Lucky for her because it's enough to bring the team, save her life and allow her to identify the culprit. Outed, Guenther's wife is arrested for his murder and the attempted murder of Susanne.



Other players include Michou Friesz, not credited for this episode (also appears in Stockinger) and Ruth Rieser as Susanne Konsel.

Many more Recycled Rexers in this episode with Eva Herzig, above, uncredited with IMDB for this episode, but also appearing in 'Ein moerderischer Plan' (1998) as Eva Muench, Andreas Patton, above, here as Guenther Sikora but also appearing in 'Jagd nach einer Toten', Max Herbrechter, above, here as Bernd and appearing in 'Der Bluff' (2001) as Paul Stollberg and Andrea Haendler, not credited for this episode, but also appearing as Claudia Redl in 'In letzter Sekunde' (2001) and as Iris Konrad in 'Happy Birthday' (2002).

Rex Resolution 57: Furchtbare Wahrheit

Along with truck drivers, another common theme seems to be crazed pianists. In this episode, Kordes is such a man, a concert pianist whose career was tragically cut short by the loss of a finger in a skiing accident. Separated from his wife and son, the wife being the skier who ran over his finger, our first introduction to the family is through son Maximilan, who is left waiting outside school for his mother to pick him up.

When she doesn't arrive, Max heads to the jeweller shop where she works, only to find Brandtner, Boeck, Rex and, oh oh, Graf, on the scene. Panicked Max rushes in, thinking the dead body on the floor is his mother. Luckily for him, it isn't. The shop has been held up and, while both assistants have been shot, his mother has survived and has been taken to hospital.

With no one to look after Max, Brandtner sets about finding his father. He tracks him down to a concert hall, working as a piano tuner. Kordes is overjoyed to have care of his son. It enables him to push him harder to practice at piano so he can vicariously relive his lost career.

A couple of things worry Brandtner about the robbery. The perpetrator seems to know a lot about the setup of the shop and only took worthless items. Initially, suspicion falls on the shop owner, particularly as his alibi doesn't hold out and Kordes has a seemingly solid alibi. However, it soon emerges that shop owner has a secret drug problem and has been evasive for that reason.

When Brandtner reviews the security tapes from the shop, he realises that Max's mother seems to have recognised the hold up man and has said something. With no sound, he calls in a lip reader to decode what was said and this confirms his thoughts. He realises that Kordes indeed has a motive in resenting the mother for the loss of his finger and therefore his career. When Alex goes to his flat, he finds taped music player and it becomes clear that the alibi given isn't so solid after all.

Realising the mother is at risk, he tries to call the hospital. Unknown to him, Kordes is already there, in the process of suffocating his ex-wife. When Brandtner arrives, it seems he is too late but, fortunately, the woman can be revived.

Across town, Kordes is indulging his lost dreams, having bought Max tails and playing a duet with him on stage. Sadly, it's all too late and Brandtner and team arrive to arrest him mid-number.

Other players include Michael Schoenborn, above, as pianist Kordes but not credited with IMDB for this episode, Laurence Rupp , above, as Maximilian Kordes, Ursula Mihelic, not listed with IMDB, Erich Schleyer , above, as Holt, Liliana Nelska, above, not credited with IMDB, Dany Sigel, above, not credited with IMDB, and the late Leon Askin, above, also not credited with IMDB.

Rex Resolution 56: Priester in Gefahr

This is another 'yawn' episode for me. What is it about truck drivers and Rex? No offence if you're reading this and happen to be a truck driver.....Anyway, a small disclaimer in that I think I dozed off somewhere in the middle of this episode (shame on me!) but I hope I have the story line mostly straight.

A truck driver gets stabbed to death while sleeping at a truck rest and his truck, with his body still on board, is stolen.

When the action cuts to Brandtner and team at a briefing about missing drivers and stolen loads of pharmaceuticals, the motive behind the attack on the man becomes clear. Not that Rex cares, he's far too busy tormenting Boeck with a laser pointer - and this, for me, is probably the best part of this episode.

The next step in the chain is for the group behind the scheme to get some unsuspecting individual to drive the stolen load across the border. All is well and good until the designated driver spots the corpse of the original driver in a car boot. Suddenly he wants out and the group are kind enough to grant him his wish, shooting him as he tries to leave. Thought to be dead, he is left in a car while the other body is disposed of and uses this opportunity to make good his escape on a garbage truck.

Falling off the truck as it arrives in the depot, he makes it to hospital and manages to survive long enough to confide in a priest the names of the men behind the scheme. Of course, this puts the priest in danger, hence the title of this episode. The priest refuses to break confidentiality and tell Brandtner what he knows, even though Brandtner tells him he is at considerable risk. When the priest starts warning other truckies of what's happening, it's not long before he's rounded up and taken prisoner. The boss of the gang seems particularly intent on making him talk to find out what he's said, the point of which is lost on me.

When Brandtner, Boeck and Rex arrive on the scene, Rex soon tracks down the priest while Brandtner and Boeck exchange shots with the gang members. The boss uses this as his opportunity to get away but Brandtner catches on and manages to disable available vehicles. When Rex catches a knife launched at Brandtner, it's all over for the bad guys yet again.

Other players include Werner Prinz as Josef Schuller, Witold Bielinski, not credited with IMDB for this episode, Miroslav Zbrojewicz, not credited for this episode, and Merab Ninidze as Jiri Borowjez.

A single Recycled Rexer Otto Tausig, uncredited with IMDB for this episode but also appearing in 'Sein letzter Sonntag' (2004) as Herr Watzek.

Rex Resolution 55: Gafaehrlicher Auftrag

This has to be one of my favourite episodes in the Brandtner series. Quite suspenseful. Although every time, I hear someone mention a bomb, it reminds me of Moser going on about 'die Bombe, die bombe...' in an earlier episode.


You might think you're watching the wrong program when it starts with Brandtner in prison. Has he gone back to his murderous ways from 'Amok'? Luckily not. He's just 'doing time' to get close with criminal Zach, who is thought to have loot and a bomb hidden somewhere on the outside.


Zach's not easy to befriend though and, when Zach is bullied by other inmates, Brandtner has to punch a few people's lights out to get him on side. As the pair are transferred to another prison together, Brandtner pulls a gun on their prison guard and the two are set free. Of course, it is all a set up. Brandtner talks Zach into hiding out at a friend's house (Boeck in disguise and wearing different clothes for once!). The idea is to keep tracks on him and find out the location of the bomb and money.


Zach has other ideas though and soon leaves, not knowing that Boeck has planted a transmitter in his bag. Brandtner and Boeck are therefore able to track him. Unfortunately, Zach discovers the transmitter and throws it in a rubbish truck, which leads the team off-track a little. Once they realise, they return to Zach's last known location from where Rex can follow the trail to Zach's hideout. Hoellerer is then able to confirm they've got the right spot from a traced phone call made by Zach when he was staying at Brandtner's.


Zach sees Brandtner arrive outside with Rex and arms a bomb before attempting to exit the building. This leaves Brandtner with just three minutes and a bomb disposal expert on the end of a 'phone to defuse the bomb. Does he succeed? Well, let's just say the episode is not called 'Brandtner's death'.


Zach has also strapped a bomb to his body and uses this as leverage to escape, with Hoeller, finally in an action-man role, as his driver. Wiley Hoellerer has other plans however and, after a sharp turn at speed into a car park, bails out the vehicle leaving Zach to explode as the vehicle smashes into another. Wurstsemmel all round, boys!








Other players include Thierry Van Werveke, above, who sadly died of cancer just last month, as Fritz Zach, Heinz Trixner, as the prison boss, not credited with IMDB for this episode, Peter Strauss, not credited with IMDB for this episode but appearing in Stockinger, and Rochus Millauer, Brandtner's cell mate, not credited for this episode.




A single Recycled Rexer, Michael Rast, uncredited for both appearances, here as the prisoner who bullies Zach and falling to his death in 'Tod im Museum'.

Rex Resolution 54: Das letzte Match

Yes, back on track with Rex episode 54. This may, in fact, be the first episode of Rex I ever saw.

Not quite sure what the above video is about but found it on my search for something suitable for this post. Gedeon is certainly most welcome to hang out on this site. Ha.

Intriguing. The pink socks? Any idea, anyone?

There's something putting coach Breuer off his tennis game and that's enough to irk his playing partner, Habermann. Calling it quits, they pack up for the night. Invited to drinks by the centre owner, Schulz, she threatens to fire Breuer should he talk.


Talk? About what?


We never get to find out because Breuer gets stabbed in the back while changing. With Habermann and Schulz gone for the night, Breuer makes it to the tennis court before collapsing, his body found by the cleaning woman the next morning.


Brandtner, alert as ever, has his sights set on Breuer and Schulz and, in his initial questioning, notices some damaged items in Schulz's office. Perhaps there has been an earlier fight? Meanwhile, Boeck virtually drools over a young, attractive tennis star under the guise of asking questions related to the investigation.


With no one able to provide any clue as to why Breuer should have met such a horrible fate, Brandtner becomes more suspicious of Breuer and Schultz. When he finds out that Schulz had rung Breuer every night over the past week and notes her use of valium to calm the nerves, he confronts her. She claims financial stress and that Breuer had been drinking, a matter she needed to address otuside of business hours.


Later, Habermann is seen putting moves on Schulz and, when she rejects him, threatening her over the money she owes him. When Schulz is found stabbed the next morning, the pressure of suspicion builds on Habermann.


The father of the attractive tennis player has other ideas though, feeding Brandtner the idea that Breuer and Schulz had been involved in an affair, that Schulz had killed Breuer out of jealousy before turning the kitchen knife on herself.


Brandtner returns to investigating the possibility of an earlier fight in Schulz's office. Finding traces of blood and at least four different sets of footprints, Brandtner knows he's found something of significance. When Habermann escapes an attack at his sports store and seems loathe to report a break in, Brandtner confronts him with the office fight scene. Habermann claims he and Schulz fought over money in front of Breuer, who, coincidentally, may have suffered a nose bleed. What? From the stress? Alex is not convinced.

When Hoellerer unearths the fact that the young tennis star had a car accident about ten days before the first murder, Brandtner realises there's more to the story than he first thought and brings her in for questionning. Under pressure, she tells Brandtner that Habermann and Breuer raped her in front of Schulz, who did nothing to intervene, and that her father took revenge. The father agrees, wanting to save his daughter's stellar career.


Supersnout Rex knows different and when he is able to prove that the murderer was in fact the young tennis player, out for revenge when her father wanted to suppress the story to avoid scandal, the story gets wrapped up.

Other players include Anja Kruse as Heidi Schulz, Dietrich Hollinderbaeumer, not credited with IMDB for this episode, Manfred Lukas-Luderer, not credited with IMDB for this episode,
Eva Habermann as tennis plater Karin Klein, and Wolfgang aka Fifi Pissecker, not credited with IMDB for this episode (although also appearing in Stockinger).

A single Recycled Rexer, Doris Mayer, not credited for this episode or an earlier appearing in 'Ein Engel auf vier Pfoten'.

Rex Resolution 53: Der Voyeur

Rex goes Hitchcock as a janitor's titillation from spying on his undressed woman neighbour takes a sinister turn. From undies to undertaker as the woman is strangled to death. About to call for help, the janitor realises the photos he's taken, which clearly show the murderer, could feather his nest quite nicely.

Having found the body, the husband is initially a prime suspect. However, a business trip to Munich at the time of death seems to rule him out.

Brandtner discovers a receipt for a Chinese restaurant and a pile of taxi receipts among the woman's belongings. Interestingly, all the receipts are from the same driver. When it emerges that the woman had been seen arguing with a man in the restaurant, the taxi man becomes chief suspect. When the driver is tracked down, he admits to having an affair with the woman and is arrested under suspicion of murder, a charge he repeatedly denies.

During this time, the janitor has forged ahead with his blackmail plan and managed to extort two million Euros out of the murderer. When he realises that this amount isn't quite enough to buy him the Viennese pad he desires, he's cheeky enough to check with his victim, the woman's husband who, conveniently, is also a real estate agent, how much he really needs. He ends up doubling his demands.

This irks the husband who then sets about finding the likely location of the blackmailer. Unfortunately, the janitor was only minding the apartment from which he took the photos. When the real owner returns from a relaxing break, he is strangled and ends up head first in his acquarium. Welcome home!

In the meantime, Brandtner has revisited earlier suspicions about the husband and finds out that he drove back to Vienna from Munich on the evening of the murder, flying back to avoid detection. Returning to the husband's apartment, he finds a ripped up photo that shows the husband murdering his wife. Note, if you're getting blackmailed, dispose of the evidence more carefully!

Brandtner's quick to put things together and heads to the apartment from which the photo was most likely taken, finding the flat ransacked and the body of the poor unfortunate traveller. Directed to the janitor and finding his flat also ransacked, he realises the janitor is the blackmailer and that his life is at risk.

At work as a night watchman in a store, the janitor is surprised by the husband who ties him up into a carpet rolling machine in an attempt to get him to tell where the negatives are. It's all too late though. Brandtner and team arrive just in time to release the man and capture the husband.

Other players include Robert Meyer, here as Mahler, Robert Hoffman, not listed with IMDB for this episode, Willy Hoeller as Herr Hoffmann, and Heide Stahl, not credited with IMDB for this episode.

A single Recycled Rexer Fritz Karl, not credited with IMDB for this episode, but also appearing in 'Bis zur letzten Kugel' (2002) as Gerhard Kostial and 'Impara l'arte' (2008) as Hugo Starke.

A bit scant on photos today. If I'm not reasonably sure I'm getting an image of the correct person, I'll pass on photos.

Rex Resolution 52: Rache

Peter Rogner, fresh out of jail, has only one thing on his mind. Revenge. It seems Brandtner and his former dog Arco arrested him for armed robbery of a bank. His girlfriend picks him up from jail in a van. In the back is a female German Shepherd. The plot is to kidnap Rex. The woman knows Brandtner's morning routine and, before long, she's got Brandtner and Rex looking for her car keys, dropped during her morning jog. Of course, it's all a ploy to lure Rex away. When Rex sees the bitch, the keys are forgotten.

It doesn't take Brandtner long to find out where Rex might be. The van gets traced back to a dog breeder, who finally tells Brandtner the name of the woman. This allows him to trace her to a location near the Prater. By the time he arrives, the pair have already left. Unknown to Alex, Rex is on his way home, having escaped the vehicle, bitten and disarmed Rogner. When Alex finds a pool of blood, he fears the worst.

Rogner and the girlfriend have headed in to the city, where Rogner steals a gun from a weapon shop.

With little to go on, Brandtner suspects Rogner may rob the same bank as before and guess what? He's correct. When Brandtner arrested Rogner previously, he walked him out of the bank in just his underwear. With Rogner holding hostages, Brandtner offers himself in exchange. A smart move as far as any Brandtner watchers go because, in a plot twist, Brandtner gets marched out the bank half-naked. Boxers or jocks? See above. That's probably one thing you never thought you'd learn from Rex.

Rex, by this time back at the scene, is not happy to see Alex half-undressed and with a gun to his head and leaps on Rogner, allowing Brandtner to escape. When a shoot out follows, Rogner escapes to a disco where he almosts nails a temporarily blinded Rex. Time for Alex to step in. With Boeck rounding up the girlfriend, all ends well.

Other players include Jochen Nickel as Peter Rogner and Teresa Harder, not credited with IMDB for this episode, both pictured above.

Recycled Rexers Herbert Pendl, not credited here but appearing in 'Ein feines Haus' (1994) as Doppler and in 'Der Fluch der Mumie' (2003) as Svoboda and a stint in Stockinger; William Mang, above, uncredited here with IMDB but appearing as Helmut Waltz in 'Ein Toter kehrt zurueck' (2000) and in 'Baby Rex- Der kleine Kommissar' (1997) and the late Hansi Lang, uncredited here with IMDB but also appearing as Rudolf Kraus in 'Mord in Gefaengnis' (2004).

Rex Resolution 51: Geraubtes Glueck

A woman is found dying in a park by a woman walking her baby. Unfortunately, there's no clue to her identity. When Dr. Graf picks up on blue spray paint on the body, Brandtner is able to tie up a key found on the body to a locker in an art school. While checking out the victim's flat, a young couple arrive and the case takes a turn for the worse. The victim had been minding their baby and now the infant is missing.

With no ransom demanded, Brandtner deducts the baby must have been taken by a childless woman and when the woman who found the body says she had been approached by a stranger who took an interest in her baby, his worst fears seem confirmed.

Brandtner favours the softly softly approach and tries to keep the story out of the newspaper, to avoid panicking whoever took the baby. Talking to a woman who had previously taken a baby gives him a line of research but the young couple, frustrated by what they perceive as inaction, go public.

When a neighbour of the perpetrator reads the story of the abduction and challenges the woman about her 'new' baby, the woman attacks her before fleeing to the countryside. Meanwhile, Brandtner's research has led him to the woman's address, saving the neighbour and discovering information which leads him to the location of the woman's country hideout.

With the woman flushed out into the open, she ends up on a cliff top in desperation and while, ultimately, Rex manages to save the baby, he nearly loses his own life when he goes over the edge himself. This time Brandtner steps up to save the day.

Other players include Ursula Andermatt , above, as Eva Oswald, Marlon Rosenthal, above, not listed with IMDB at all, Ina Halmagyi , above, as Sonja Ebner, Johannes Thanheiser as Opa in Reichenau, Ingrid Burkard, not credited with IMDB for this episode.

A single Recycled Rexer Petra Morze, not listed with IMDB for this episode, but appearing in 'Flucht in den Tod' (1994).

Rex Resolution 50: Die Verschwoerung

When three friends find themselves blackmailed by a business associate, they elect to take matters into their own hands. As the victim indulges in a little clay-shooting, he suddenly finds himself staring down the barrel of his own gun, as one of three shoot him in the face in an attempt to make his death look like a suicide. Meanwhile, another heads off to the victim's hotel room to erase incriminating data from his computer. Then it's time to resume their pleasant morning of golf.

However, they weren't counting on Rex, who picks up a trail at the crime scene that leads him right on to the golf course. Questioned by Brandtner, this unsettles one of the three to the extent that he loses his nerve and releatedly attempts to leave the hotel, incurring the wrath of his associates. This eventually secures him the 'hot spot', locked in a sauna in a fluffy robe with heat set to maximum in an attempt to silence him for good.

With a brief intermission so that Rex can eat chocolate from the hotel mini-bar and watch a porno movie, for which Boeck gets blamed (smart dog!), Brandtner soon works out that the victim had been blackmailing the three men and moves in to arrest them on suspicion of murder. Rex manages to locate the sauna victim but, in trying to save him, he gets locked in and sweaty under the collar himself. The other two run for it with Boeck in hot pursuit. With their escape foiled by a train crossing, the chase takes off along the rail lines where Boeck falls and ends up unconscious between the rails, just in time to catch the express to Salzburg. Rex, by this time freed from the sweatbox, gets there in the nick of time to stop the train, which finally comes to rest a metre or two from Boeck. As he helps Brandtner round up the escapees, the case is laid to rest.





Other players include Erwin Steinhauser as Ahrens, Miguel Herz-Kestranek as Stanok, and Thomas Declaude, not credited with IMDB for this episode.

Recycled Rexers Johannes Silberschneider, not credited for this episode with IMDB, but appearing in 'Der erste Preis' (1995) as Wolfgang Kucera, Susanne Michel, not credited for this episode but also appearing in 'Ein Zeuge auf vier Pfoten' (2002) as Claudia Vogler.

Rex Resolution 49: Toedliche Leidenschaft

If you've ever considered infidelity, this episode might give you food for thought. When Helmut Kraus finds out his father has been having an affair with his wife, revenge comes in the form of a storage container dropped on his father from a great height.

Of course, when Brandtner and Boeck first start their investigation, it initially looks as if the case is related to Kraus Senior's gambling history. Alex puts himself in danger, joining an illegal poker game and asking the most pointed questions almost before the first hand is dealt. No wonder he's outed as a cop almost immediately. Good job Rex is on hand to save the day yet again!

When Kraus Senior's little black book (or should I say 'phone directory) comes to light, suspicion shifts to his wife. Cold as ice, she doesn't seem to give her fig about her flattened man. Scary is Boeck's dreamy look as he imagines 48 girlfriends and what he'd get up to. Aiee. Let's not go there, please.

Brandtner decides to talk to Helmut's wife, Ines, to see if she can shed any light on familial relationships or suggest who the latest girlfriend might have been, not knowing he's talking to the guilty party. However, when he leaves, he notices a parking ticket on Ines' car and, following up, realises the truth.

Stressed out, Ines faints and is taken to hospital where it emerges she is pregnant to her husband's father. Rex goes Jerry Springer! Overcome with rage, Helmut takes her forcibly to his mother's office where the mother learns that Helmut was behind the murder. When Helmut hits out at Ines, mother-son love runs deep and the mother helps him hide the unconscious body in a storage container, just as the police arrive. Rex isn't fooled though and notices blood on Helmut's trousers and finds Ines just as she's about to be shipped out of the storyline for good.

Other players include Angelika Bartsch as spurned wife Martina Kraus, Klaus Rohrmoser, not credited with IMDB for this episode, and Iris Junik as the unfaithful daughter-in-law, Ines Kraus.

Recycled Rexers include the late Georg Staudacher as Helmut Kraus, and Johannes Terne, not credited with IMDB for this episode, but also seen in Eiskalt (2000) as Johannes Altman.

Rex Resolution 47: Der Mann mit den tausenden Gesichtern

Usually people choose to run away to the circus but, in this episode, a washed-up circus act uses his mastery of disguise to knock over a few supermarkets to raise money to run a bar somewhere hot and sunny. Sounds like a reasonable retirement plan until he shoots dead a supermarket manager who tries to stop him making off with the money.

Alongside his various disguises, the man, Wallisch, has worked out a good escape strategy, ducking into peep shows and walking out minus his diguise (but thankfully not minus his clothes). This offers the show the opportunity both for it's increasingly common token nudity and a little comic relief as Boeck gets grilled about his experience with peep-shows by Brandtner.

Still, it doesn't take Brandtner long to work out a circus connection and, thanks to an agent in the business, Boeck is sent to track the man down. However, poor Boeck gets fooled by Wallisch in disguise and when Brandtner realises what has happened, it's all too late and the man is gone, not without leaving a clue though. A brochure on Schoenbrunn leads Alex in the right direction. With supersnout Rex on board, it doesn't take long to locate Wallisch.

After a very scenic chase through the park and zoo, Wallisch holes up in the Pavillion with a number of hostages. Brandtner, Hoellerer and Rex hatch an elaborate plan to capture the man when he tries to escape on a bus with his hostages but Wallisch outsmarts then. Disguised as a released wounded hostage, Wallisch plans his escape in an ambulance but Rex smells him out and alerts Brandtner, allowing him to stop the ambulance in the nick of time. Endstation as Moser would say.

Other players include Gideon Singer as the unwiting accomplice Thomas Koller, Monika Tajmar as Claudine Potofski, Magdalena Felixa, not credited with IMDB for this episode, Rainer Warrings, not credited with IMDB at all, and Elisabeth Orlowsky, also non-existant in the IMDB database.

A single Recycled Rexer Joachim Bissmeier, here as the man of the title, later as Egon Limbach in 'Der Fluch der Mumie' (2003).