Der Joker (1987)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Peter Patzak

Writers:

Jonathan Carroll (writer)
Mortimer Ellis (story)

Release Date:

15 October 1987 (West Germany)

Genre:

Thriller | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Several known criminals already have been murdered by a professional killer, leaving no trace but the "ace" game card...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Restaurant | Revenge | Murder Investigation | Impotence

Cast

Peter Maffay	...	Jan Bogdan
Tahnee Welch	...	Daniela Santini
Bernard Freyd	...	Mario Santini
Massimo Ghini	...	Toni Blach
Karl Merkatz	...	Josef Blach
Elke Krings	...	Theresa Blach
Elliott Gould	...	Serge Gart
Joachim Dietmar Mues	...	Salz
Marquard Bohm	...	Pfeffer
András Gönczöl	...	Koura
Werner Pochath	...	Resch
Monica Bleibtreu	...	Cilly
Uwe Hacker	...	Riese
Klaus Bueb	...	Paul
Klaus Stiglmeier	...	1. Zuhälter

Also Known As:

Lethal Obsession
The Joker (International: English title) (video title)

Runtime:

Germany:97 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German | English | Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Sweden:15 (video rating) | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | West Germany:16 (f) (w)

Filming Locations:

Abaton Kino, Allende-Platz, Hamburg, Germany

Company:

CTV 72 Film und Fernsehproduktion GmbH

Hard German revenge thriller

Peter Maffay is not the guy you expect to see in a hard-boiled detective revenge movie. The Romanian-born greasy ballad singer with a certain pseudo-rock and macho image who is a big music star in Germany for 35 years now tried a step into the movies with this German crime movie from 1987.

Maffay plays Jan Bogdan, a police detective in Hamburg who becomes seriously hurt during a bomb attack in a restaurant by a brutal killer gang. His good friend has been killed, and Bogdan is bound to the wheelchair now. Filled with anger and thirst for revenge he quits the police and kills his opponents one by one until he finds the heads of the gang... of course there's a good buddy involved, too, and a well-looking dark-haired seduction that both guys are falling in love with, some corrupt policemen, conspiracies, brutal henchmen with black gloves, assassinations, killings, showdowns etc.

The direction of crime movie veteran Peter Patzak is well done, but shows some boring lengths in the middle of the plot. The script combines elements of seventies crime action with hard-boiled detective stories, revenge dramas, Italian giallos and mafia movies and of course a lot of bad 80's hard rock ballads... the cast is fine with Tahnee Welch as the sexy girlfriend and first class actors like Armin Mueller-Stahl, Michael York and Elliot Gould (all of them playing bad guys here).

Only the choice of Peter Maffay was a big misstep, as his range of acting is limited to the face expressions of a goldfish. Bearing his never changing forced macho style all the time and especially listening to his bad way of stumbling his dialogues together is a pure pain in the ass! Fortunately for movie-goes, Maffay returned only once again on the screens - except for some cameos - in the cliche-ladden adventure drama "Verschollen im Jemen" (Missing in Yemen) in 1999, directed by Patzak, too.

Some more details for movie buffs - the bad soundtrack, consisting of greasy digital keyboard tunes and bad 80's "Scorpions" style hard rock ballads, was composed by Maffay and former Rainbow keyboard player Tony Carey who had a short musical career in Germany 20 years ago. Production assistant Otto Retzer later became the director of the cheesy soap opera "Ein Schloss am Woerthersee" and several b-movie adventures such as the strange "Der schwarze Fluch". A nice movie for Maffay worshippers, but not the big jewel to discover for crime genre and film retro fans.