Heiße Spuren (1974)

Ten-year-old Lutz Paschke, the son of Police Captain Paschke, is an enthusiastic but often overzealous detective. With his Basset Hound, Pinkus, he roams around town, imagining that he sees crimes in mostly harmless events. Time and again, he summons his father to investigate what he thinks is a crime. Once, Lutz believes he has witnessed a murder, but it turns out to be an awkward attempt to kill a carp. His father is annoyed, especially since Lutz’s antics repeatedly land him in embarrassing situations. So when Lutz receives an anonymous letter, made up of cut-out letters, announcing a crime at the old mill on Friday evening, he says nothing to his father. In the evening, Lutz heads to the mill with Pinkus and his best friend Katrin. Katrin really does see someone with binoculars, but the person runs away. On their way to the train, both children see the fugitive again in an allotment garden, jumping over garden fences as he escapes. In the garden, Lutz finds not only a large shoeprint but also a button. At the tram stop, they notice two young men with a box of grass seed and a radio; they react irritably to Pinkus. At home, Lutz’s angry parents are waiting for him. Because he did not come home, neither of them could go to a concert; instead, they waited for their son and alerted the neighbors. When Lutz hints that he was late because of a break-in at the garden sheds and the subsequent examination of the crime scene, his father gets angry. The next day, Paschke learns that there really was a break-in at the allotment. Machinery and a radio are missing. The stolen goods were probably carried away in a grass-seed box. Paschke questions his son, but now Lutz gives only vague answers. At school, he noticed that his teacher Dornbusch’s shoes have a distinctive, deep tread. He and Katrin secretly sneak back to the crime scene and make an impression of the shoe tread. But allotment owner Luise Weberlein catches him and takes him to the police, believing him to be a burglar. Father Paschke insists that Lutz apologize to Mrs. Weberlein in person, so Lutz and Katrin go to her apartment. It turns out that Dornbusch rents a room from Mrs. Weberlein. A button is missing from his jacket—the one Lutz found in the garden. Mr. Dornbusch does not deny having been in the allotment at night, either, and explains to Lutz that he was in a difficult situation. Paschke, alerted by Katrin, learns what happened: Mrs. Weberlein is a very strict landlady, so Mr. Dornbusch has had to meet his fiancée in Mrs. Weberlein’s garden shed. Once again, Lutz’s search for the culprit has come to nothing. Paschke asks Lutz for a precise description of the two young men he saw at the stop. One of them had a large stain on his trousers. The police are indeed able to identify a man who had taken trousers like that to a dry cleaner’s. Meanwhile, Lutz continues investigating on his own. He places an ad saying that, as a schoolboy, he is looking for a portable radio. Two replies arrive shortly afterward: the father of an older singing teacher is ruled out as a possible culprit. The second ad, however, puts Lutz on the right track, since the two culprits want to get rid of their old radio for very little money. But Lutz gives himself away and gets into danger, because the culprits recognize him as the boy from the night of the crime. A short time later, however, the police arrive and arrest both men. Paschke reprimands Lutz, although he has to admit that he himself did not think of placing the ad. Lutz promises never to play detective again, but in the end he still solves the mystery of who wrote the letter made of cut-out letters: a classmate had wanted to play a prank on him.