Parole Chicago (1979) - Episodes (storylines)
(my English isn’t quite good - so surely you can find some mistakes but I did my best…)
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Ep. 1: Die Sache mit dem Ohrring (The Earring Affair)
By chance Ede (Christoph Waltz) finds a pair of earrings at the cafe. Actually, they are worthless, but Harry (Gottfried Vollmer) smells a big business. With Ede as his accomplice he wants to commit a scam. Harry enters the jeweler’s shop with one of the earrings and personates himself as a baron, shows him the trinket and asserts it were precious family jewelry. Harry offers 2,000 Deutschmarks, if the goldsmith can give him the second one.
Ede now appears on the scene. A few days later, he arrives with the other earring and hopes that the man will buy the worthless thing for plenty of money. But not everything goes according to plan…
Ep. 2: Ein todsicherer Trick (A Surefire Ploy)
Harry has a new plan to make money: he shows Ede the so called bubble-gum-trick. Here he will place it under a jeweler showcase, distract the seller to stick a valuable diamond ring on the gum and disappear. Then Ede shows up in business to collect the loot unremarkable.
Said and done. This time the trick even works, but then Ede puts the ring on his finger…
Ep. 3: Das Ding beim Zahnarzt (Caper at the Dentist)
This time Harry suspects a big business at the dentist and goes for gold fillings, which will make him rich - in his opinion. Clearly he implicates Ede. Harry wants to steal the gold from the safe, while Ede is treated. Of course a painful plan and it goes naturally wrong. But Ede and Harry did not give up and make another attempt.
Ep. 4: Der beste Freund des Menschen (Humans Best Friend)
The notification of a widow who is searching for her dachshund and a reward of 20 Deutschmarks gives Harry the idea to kidnap a pedigree dog to collect an exorbitant sum for it. Ede snatchs a dog, but it’s the wring one. Well now the two “crooks” don’t know where they can go with their booty. First they want to give it to Dorothee, Harry’s fiancée, after that to Ede’s new girlfriend. But the dog destroys a valuable vase at her home and the father of the lady requires 100 Deutschmarks. Now Ede and Harry certainly need the reward for the dog to give the man the money for this disaster.
Ep. 5: Die Entführung (The Kidnapping)
The wealthy widow of a bank owner tells Harry of her cat and asks him to come over, while she is away for a few days. He senses the great opportunity, because the food of the animal costs a fortune. He plans to rob the good-natured woman. Together with Ede he wants to steal her jewelry from the safe, but it’s pointless. They choose a kidnapping and their victim: the beloved cat. Of course, not everything goes according to plan again.
Ep. 6: Der vergiftete Brief (The Poisoned Letter)
Harry thinks that Dorothee is unfaithful to him. So he has written her a letter in which he tells her that she should go to hell. Namely, he has seen how she kissed a stranger. Soon, it turns out that this lady was Dorothee’s cousin. Now Harry wants to recover the letter as soon as possible. Ede is to attack the postman and pull the paper out of circulation. When this fails, his friend has a new plan: he calls Dorothee and tells her that the letter was poisoned with dangerous chemicals. Ede finally wants to get it out of the apartment, but getting caught and arrested by the police.
Ep. 7: Der Bankraub (The Bank Robbery)
Harry wants to go on a caper with Ede again. He plans to rob the savings bank of the Berlin City Bank on Fasanenplatz. So Ede shall make a note like “Raid! A gun is aimed at your head!” and shows it to the cashier. Unfortunately, he confused his message with his mother’s shopping list.
Ep. 8: Zwei Eisen im Feuer (Two Irons in the Fire)
A mysterious undercover agent sells Harry a burglary plan. It shows him how to break in a pawnbroker’s shop and its safe. At night, Harry and Ede go to the crime scene, but instead of finding oneself in the shop they went into a funeral home.
Harry then decides to earn his money by fraud when he hears that Dorothee’s relative Tommi is a successful jockey. He tries to convince him to lose the next race for money. But as usual, everything is different.
Ep. 9: Die Uhr des Chefs (Boss’s Clock)
Harry reveals Ede that he’s fired. Now he wants to wreak revenge on his boss by breaking into his mansion and steal a valuable clock. Disguised as gas men they come into the house and explain the housekeeper, she had to leave the windows open at night because of an impending gas line to explode. The two later actually get into it again, but then the plan is going - as usual - wrong…
Ep. 10: Der ganz große Kunstraub (The Very Big Art Heist)
Harry suspects the very big business again: A certain Alfons Lehmann should be a fence who has stolen many pictures and now “unsuspecting” customers looking for it. But to get to the goods, they need 200 Deutschmarks. Ede and his current girlfriend Vera must participate at a dance competition - he even wins! But they already need 100 marks, the half. So the two crooks have to find another way to get to the rest of the money. And they obviously have no idea that Lehmann does not want to palm an expensive original off on them but a cheap reprint.
Ep. 11: Das Geburtstagsgeschenk (The Birthday Present)
It’s Dorothee’s birthday: Harry wants to make her a present of an outrageously expensive clock, but of course he hasn’t the money to do. Then he forges criminal plans to achieve one’s aim again. First he tried (in a Salvation Army uniform) to beg of an elderly lady in donations for needy children. When it doesn’t work Harry gets the idea to let Sonja, a hairdresser, makeup Ede that he looks like Otto, the son of his boss Herrmann, who is a tax consultant. After that Ede - as Otto - asks the bank for a loan of the amount of 200 marks. But of course it’s not a good plan.
Ep. 12: Der Kommissionsverkauf (Sale on Commission)
Harry suspects a whole new way to get money: He should sell a motorcycle for a coal merchant. He took the vehicle to the commission and, of course, already the man finds a potential buyer called Krause. Harry and Ede meet him for a test drive, only this time Harry get ripped off. The alleged Krause disappeared with the bike, never to return. Now Harry needs money to replace the coal merchant’s property. Conveniently, Ede has just received a valuable pearl necklace from his boss and shall bring it to a jeweler for estimating. Harry is planning a raid on Ede. When this did not work, he will make a duplicate of the chain. With fatal consequences…
Ep. 13: Eine schnelle Reichsmark (A Quick Buck)
Harry wants to attend an illegal poker tournament together with Ede. His cousin will look at the others cards and give Harry to understand whether to call or fold. The beginning is wonderful, but we all know that they can only lose in the end. However a burglary at the pawnbroker’s shop avert their plight…
