The Copper               

Aka - Der Greifer


A brisk and well-constructed policier from Germany that is at its strongest not so much for the crime related aspects but instead for the personal ones. It stars Hans Albers who I hadn't realized till after seeing this and reading up was perhaps the most popular male actor in Germany from the early 1930s through the War years and into the 1950s. He was also a very popular singer and some of his films were musicals. When the Nazis came to power, he was untouchable so much so that his Jewish wife was left alone - though eventually she decided to get the hell out and left for Switzerland. Alber's breakout film was the 1930 movie of the same title as this one - but the plot is very much different as he is a Scotland Yard Inspector in that one.

 
Commissioner Denert is on the edge of retirement after a very successful career. He doesn't want to go - especially as he is in the middle of a Jack the Ripper type of investigation. Someone out there is killing young blonde women - up to five - and he wants to solve it as his final act as a Commissioner. But the bigwigs have other ideas. They are tired of his old-fashioned ideas in which intuition plays a large part and his sarcastic retorts to them doesn't help. They want a younger man. Denert also likes hanging out in dens of inequity where crooks and prostitutes like to drink. The scene of him in these surroundings - knowing them all by name - having their respect - leading them in song - is a great scene. A female undercover policewoman is in there and sees this suspicious old man carousing and calls in the cops to arrest him.


The film begins with three men robbing the post and killing a man - the police are shown to be very efficient - left over perhaps from the old days - and they capture two of them in a matter of minutes and Dennert is able to guess who the third man must be. 12,000 marks though is not recovered. His son is also a cop in homicide and is one of the new breed, but the affection between father and son is a strong point of the film. The son falls for the fiancée (Susanne Cramer) of one of the robbers - and she happens to be blonde and likes to walk through the park on her way home. At night. A lot of blondes in this film. Dye your hair! Denert thinks he has a suspect in the killings but only his intuition tells him so - no proof but something doesn't set right in his mind. Then they tell him his time is up - enjoy your life of leisure. But not this cop - he keeps on digging. Albers is terrific in this playing the wise but fair old man ready to bow out when the time is right.

---