Lethal Obsession (1987)

Just what I expected

Don't Believe the Hype

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

"Der Joker" is a 1987 movie from West Germany and it runs for slightly over 90 minutes. The director is Peter Patzak and he also worked on the story. But the only reason why this is still somewhat known today is singer Peter Maffay playing the title character. He was in his 30s at this point. For me, it is really difficult to decide what was the worst about this film, Maffay's performance or the screenplay. Both aspects are majorly disappointing. The funniest thing is probably how they keep trying to show us Maffay's wheelchair bound main character as the ultimate crime-solving bad-ass, who kicks every criminal's ass despite his disability. It's really really cringeworthy combined with Maffay's complete lack of range. Admittedly, his supporting cast here was almost as bad and the soundtrack is an embarrassment too. Not even fans of Maffay's music career 8and there are really many) can say seriously that he or this film he is in here have any quality whatsoever. Next year, it will have its 30th anniversary and this movie is a glorious example of what happens when a lone wolf bad-ass crime movie goes wrong. I highly recommend you to stay far far away. It is so generic, also with the female characters, who have absolutely no impact at all and are 100% stereotypical. Not recommended. Disastruous film.

To make a simple story short: the city of Hamburg is plagued by organized crime. There seems to be a looming turf war between rivaling mob fractions and tough-as-nails cop Jan Bogdan (Peter Maffay), together with his partner and best friend Tony (Massimo Ghini), who is having an affair with his girlfriend Daniela (Tahnee Welch), is investigating. Of course this soon makes him a target and Bogdan loses both his ability to walk and his police license in a bomb-attack. Sitting in a wheelchair, Bogdan is still tough-as-nails and seeks revenge on his own – seemingly aided by the mysterious assassin Dr. Proper (Michael York), whereby the word "seemingly" plays a huge role in the world of crime.I'd go as far as to call "Der Joker" a paradox of its own making: First, let's talk about the good things: the supporting cast is altogether great. Albeit all just having minor roles, actors like Armin Müller-Stahl, Michael York (a highlight in this film), Elliot Gould, Monika Bleibtreu or Karl Merkatz (beloved by Austrian viewers as "Mundl") all rattle their stuff down as professionally as is required. The soundtrack, yes, it is cheesier than a Swiss fondue (produced by ex-Rainbow keyboard-player Tony Carey and Maffay himself), but at the same time catches the 'vibe' of the 80's, stuck solidly in Soft-Rock-ballads and tons of hairspray.Maffay is of course the center-figure of the whole film. The Romanian born musician is best known for composing schmaltzy Pop-songs and his social-engagement regarding children during the 80s and 90s. Maffay may be many things, but an actor he is not. The opposite is true. It's almost painful to see him try to mimic and pose through the film, almost like watching a toddler trying to crawl across a busy highway. If you want to sum up Maffays facial expression in one word, the first word that comes to mind is "congested" and seeing him try to press out his dialog raises no other sentiment than that of "Schadenfreude". Yet, Maffay stoically struts through his stuff, as if trying to emulate Sylvester Stallone in his early roles (which naturally fails as well), presumably while his more professional co-stars were trying to suppress hysterical gigging. Raquel Welch-daughter Tahnee doesn't fare much better: she may have inherited the looks of her mother, but literally none of her acting-skills.Patzak, a veteran of Austro-German TV, is doing a job as competent as you'd expect from the director. He'll forever be known as director of the Austrian cult-series "Kottan ermittelt", an anarchistic parody of German TV-crime-series. However, Patzak himself never seems quite sure, whether he wanted to produce an action-filled US-flick a la Stallone's "Nighthawks", an equally action-filled variation of the Schimanski "Tatort" TV-films or a tribute to the Italian Poliziotteschi–genre. There are strong elements of all three genres, which may not be the most imaginative, but makes "Der Joker" great fun nevertheless – if you're into those movies, that is. Needless to say that "Der Joker", despite all his flaws (or perhaps because of them?), has his cult-following and is on his own ground rather recommendable. Whether you're looking for a down-to-earth crime-thriller or a performance that goes back from bad to simply hilarious. 6/10

I love this film. Peter Maffay really can't act and he gives his lines in a way (German version) that I was laughing all through the movie. The whole concept is so pathetic and the cheesy score (okay, occasionally it's not that bad) drowns this flick merciless in sentimentality. "Joker" wants to be hard and tough and sometimes it does not look bad at all but it's more the ruin of an interesting concept, spoiled by the leading role and the typical 80ies cheese. Patzak can be a good director and I'm sure if he would have done "Joker" 10 years earlier, with Maurizio Merli for example... (haha), maybe this movie could have been pretty good, who knows. But I don't say that this version actually is bad. It's not bad if you are looking for some good fun. So I give it 4 out of 10 for the movie it wants to be and an unofficial 8 out of 10 for the unintentional comedy it is.

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.