Die Mörder sind unter uns (1946)

Director:

Wolfgang Staudte

Writer:

Wolfgang Staudte (writer)

Release Date:

16 August 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

Plot:

Susanne Wallner returns to the ruins of Berlin from a Concentration Camp after WW2 to discover that someone else lives in her apartment: Dr...

Plot Keywords:

Ruins | Love | Children | Concentration Camp | Execution

Cast

Ernst Wilhelm Borchert	...	Dr. Hans Mertens (as W. Borchert)
Hildegard Knef	...	Susanne Wallner
Arno Paulsen	...	Ferdinand Brueckner
Elly Burgmer	...	Mutter des kranken Kindes
Erna Sellmer	...	Elise Brueckner
Hilde Adolphi	...	Daisy
Marlise Ludwig	...	Sonja
Ursula Krieg	...	Carola Schulz
Robert Forsch	...	Herr Mondschein
Albert Johannes	...	Bartolomaeus Timm
Wolfgang Dohnberg	...	Fritz Knochenhauer
Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur	...	Arzt

Also Known As:

Der Mann, den ich erschießen werde (Germany) (working title)
Der Mann, den ich töten werde (Germany) (working title)
Murderers Among Us (USA)
The Murderers Are Among Us (UK)

Runtime:

85 min | Germany:91 min (re-issue)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) (w) (original rating) | West Germany:6 (f) (w) (re-rating) | Finland:K-16 | UK:PG | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Althoff-Atelier, Babelsberg, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

Company:

Deutsche Film (DEFA)

Trivia:

It was the first German movie after World War II

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hilde (2009)

Fine German Expressionist / Noir cinematography in the ruins of Berlin

Murderers Among Us is the first film made, of a vast trove of films, in the Soviet controlled sector of post-war Germany that was to become East Germany. It is deeply and masterfully immersed in the aesthetic traditions of German Expressionism and /or Film Noir: unusual angles and picture planes, extreme lighting effects, twisted stairs, bombed-out buildings that look like jagged fingers against the sky (it was shot in the ruins of Berlin), a haunted, tormented protagonist, stark black and white atmosphere, and, above all, shadows. Shadows and more shadows of every size, shape, and density. In fact this film could serve as a text book on shadow craft: the scene where a man is screaming from within the vast shadow of a pistol wielding attacker is magnificent. I haven't seen The Third Man recently but I am sure Murderers influenced it profoundly. I would recommend the Third Man as a good double feature with this film.

Murders belongs to a genre called 'rubble films', shot in the rubble of Germany and frequently dealing with issues of German guilt after WW II. Murderers does not seek to deal overmuch with the people who gave the orders, but with the many Germans who followed them with little or no protest. Such as the wounded doctor in this film who stood by while even children were executed as reprisals against resistance fighters in occupied Poland. Plotwise the film works quite nicely, and I liked the atmosphere of renewal, and perhaps relief at the end of a nightmare, amongst all that ruin and rubble as the German people began to pick themselves up.