The Murderers Are Among Us
| The Murderers Are Among Us (UK) Murderers Among Us (US) Die Mörder sind unter uns (Germany) |
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British movie poster
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| Directed by | Wolfgang Staudte |
| Produced by | Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft |
| Written by | Wolfgang Staudte |
| Starring |
Ernst Wilhelm Borchert Hildegard Knef Arno Paulsen Erna Sellmer |
| Music by | Ernst Roters |
| Cinematography |
Friedl Behn-Grund Eugen Klagemann |
| Edited by | Hans Heinrich |
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Release date
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Running time
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91 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
Die Mörder sind unter uns, a German film known in English as Murderers Among Us in the United States or The Murderers Are Among Us in the United Kingdom was one of the first post-World War II German films and the first Trümmerfilm. It was produced in 1945 and 1946 in the Althoff Studios in Babelsberg and in Jofa-Ateliers in Johannisthal. It was written and directed by Wolfgang Staudte.
Berlin in 1945 after Germany's defeat in the war. The former military surgeon Dr. Hans Mertens (Ernst Wilhelm Borchert) stumbles down the street, drunk. He suffers from flashbacks of the war and has an aversion to people in pain, which prevents him from practicing medicine. Instead, he spends his days drinking. An artist and Nazi concentration camp survivor, Susanne Wallner (Hildegard Knef), finds him living in her apartment as she returns home.They reluctantly live together at first, then become friends.
Susanne finds a letter from a Mrs. Brückner in her apartment and confronts Mertens about it. Mertens tries to get a job at a hospital, but a screaming woman gives him flashbacks and he is left incapacitated. Meanwhile, Susanne meets with Ferdinand Brückner (Arno Paulsen). When Mertens returns, Susanne informs him that Brückner is alive and well.
Mertens visits Brückner, his former captain, and stays for dinner. He is now a successful businessman, producing pots out of old Stahlhelme, the German military steel helmet. After the dinner, Brückner returns to Mertens his gun from the war. Mertens has another flashback and goes home drunk.
Soon after, Mertens decides to kill Brückner. He leads Brückner away under the pretense of going to another bar and takes him along a purportedly shorter route, through the rubble and abandoned buildings of Berlin. When he thinks they are alone, he draws his gun. As he does so, a woman in need of a doctor runs out of one of the ruined buildings. Brückner tells her that Mertens is a doctor, but he is reluctant to help. The woman tells him her only child has stopped breathing, and he goes along with her, while Brückner leaves for the bar alone. He performs a tracheotomy on the girl. After the surgery, Mertens returns home and proclaims his love for Susanne.
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Wikipedia