Kurzer Prozeß (1967)

District Inspector Pokorny was transferred from Vienna to the fictional Austrian district capital of Mühlstadt four years ago, after slapping a suspect twice while on duty. There, as he puts it, he has to “deal with idiot yokels who steal each other’s chickens.” Police constable Janisch has now been summarily tried and sentenced to seven years in prison for a robbery at the post office in Litzelsdorf. His colleagues are instructed by their superiors to restore the honor of the police and catch the real culprits. At the same time, they must deal with a host of other cases. They investigate the case of 13-year-old Walter Nagler, who was supposedly found hanged, and the disappearance of Eduard von Hartenbach, whose stepdaughter, actress Karin Nieburg, is looking for him. After several setbacks, they prove that Walter Nagler was murdered by the boy’s alcoholic father, who had been suspected from the outset. After initially remaining silent, his wife describes the events of the crime in vivid detail. In the Hartenbach case, too, after the missing man’s body is found on the grounds of his villa, the investigation initially proceeds on the assumption of murder. But the forensic examination clearly establishes that he died of natural causes. Pokorny nevertheless continues investigating, since it emerged during the inquiry that police constable Janisch had, without realizing it, seen the two household staff, the Sandner brothers, burying the body. Earlier, they had robbed a cash courier in Zurich and deposited the loot under the name Eduard von Hartenbach at the Mühlstadt Raiffeisen Bank. To ensure they could retrieve the suitcase of loot even after Hartenbach’s sudden natural death, his death first had to remain undiscovered. For this reason, Janisch was taken out of circulation by being blamed for the post office robbery, which had in fact been committed by the Sandner brothers. Janisch is released, and with help from his underworld friend Wokupetz, who followed him from Vienna to Mühlstadt out of affection and stayed by his side there, Pokorny catches the Sandner brothers and brings them to justice.