Die Knickerbocker-Bande: Das sprechende Grab (1995)

Four friends—Lilo, Axel, Poppy, and Dominik—are the Knickerbocker Gang, whose adventures take place not only in their native Austria but now all over the world. At the beginning of the film, the gang prevents the theft of the secret recipe for Sachertorte from Vienna’s Hotel Sacher, after which the young detectives make the news. In Vienna, ten-year-old Poppy, the gang’s youngest member, wants to prove her courage by crossing Vienna’s central cemetery at night. She spots a figure wrapped in a black cloak heading toward the grave of the magician Rudolf Conte. There, the grave speaks to the mysterious person—but Poppy interrupts him, forcing him to flee. In the days that follow, young actor Dominik rehearses a new musical at the Burgtheater and falls in love with the lead actress, Melissa, who is targeted in an assassination attempt. The four friends are once again drawn into an exciting new detective adventure. A few days later, after the four friends have foiled the attempt, Melissa appears outside the gang’s headquarters and reveals that she was the figure at the cemetery. An anonymous letter had asked her to come to the cemetery on her eighteenth birthday. Rudolf Conte is her late father. Melissa’s mother, the American actress Annie Kramer, also arrives in Vienna. She, too, receives a letter and then goes to the cemetery.