It Happened in Broad Daylight

A girl is found murdered in a wood in Switzerland. The police extract a quick confession and close the file, but Matthäi, an inspector about to retire, does not believe it and promises the child's mother he will find the killer. Keeping that promise costs him his job, his retirement and eventually his mind, and he is even prepared to use a child as bait. Ladislao Vajda made it from a screenplay by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who later turned the same story into his novel The Pledge and changed the ending. Heinz Rühmann plays the inspector entirely outside the comic register he was known for. The idea is hard: doing everything correctly guarantees no outcome. Who it is for: viewers who like classic European crime films and stories about obsession. Who it is not for: anyone avoiding the subject of a child's murder.