Injustice, Prison, Jealousy and Murders

claudio_carvalho

The architect Phillip Braun (Helmut Griem) is framed by his former employer Lasky (Walter Kohut) that embezzles the money that should be used to buy suitable material of a construction that collapses, killing a person. Phillip is wrongly imprisoned and for five years his lawyer David Reinalt (Dieter Laser) is not capable to prove that Lasky is the responsible for the accident.

When Phillip is released, he meets his beautiful wife Lisa Braun (Brigitte Fossey) and then his son Timmie (Claudius Kracht). Soon Lasky seeks Philip out to poison the relationship of his wife with David. Lisa is very close to David and Phillip becomes suspicious of their friendship. David finds a job for Phillip with a friend of him and he tells that Lasky is pressing him because he is still trying to prove Phillip's innocence. Soon Lisa confesses to her husband that she had a brief two-week love affair with David a long time ago when he was in prison, but now they are only friends. Phillips is disturbed with the revelation and his jealous increases while Lisa frequently visits David. One day, Phillip visits David and he tells that he has just saved his life since Lasky was trying to kill him. But Phillip kills David with a statue and cleans his fingerprints. Lasky and Phillip becomes the prime suspect of Police Commissioner Österreicher (Bernhard Wicki). However, Lasky had bugged David's apartment and he blackmails Phillip with an audio tape. What will Phillip do?

"Die gläserne Zelle" is an amoral story of injustice, prison, jealousy and murders. Phillip Braun is a tormented man that suffered for five years an injustice in a prison. He was separated from his wife and son, and leaves the confinement in jail with a different behavior, almost paranoid. He cannot find a job; he suspects that his wife is having a love affair with his defense lawyer; his little son calls the lawyer of "uncle". His disturbed mind is deeply affected when the responsible for his imprisonment poisons the relationship of his beloved wife and his lawyer. His next attitudes show how deeply affected he was along the period in jail. The conclusion is amoral but the real world is not fair. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Cela de Vidro" ("Glass Cell")

score 8/10

claudio_carvalho 23 January 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3168579/