The opening scene conveys the film's mood. A low-angle camera shot shows bombed-out buildings, rubble in the street, an abandoned war tank, a makeshift wooden cross stuck in the ground, and a middle age man walking alone toward the camera, as three children play amid the ruins. There's no dialogue, just jazzy, bouncy, upbeat piano music that contrasts sharply with the bleak B&W image.

Set in Berlin in 1945, the film tells the fictional story of a former surgeon, the man in the opening scene, whose name is Dr. Mertens (Ernst Borchert). He's dispirited and cynical. He meets up with a young woman, played by Hildegard Knef. The two of them share an uninviting apartment, severely damaged in the recently ended war. Knef's character is attracted to the dejected surgeon. But he's too disheartened to care. The deaths of thousands of people in a war render a surgeon's job of saving one life rather meaningless, according to Dr. Mertens. As the plot moves along, he reunites with an older, prosperous industrialist, a man whose attitude about the war is curiously indifferent.

All of the film's photography was done in Berlin, right after the war. The destroyed buildings and brick rubble are a big part of the story, symbolic of human devastation. B&W, expressionistic cinematography is terrific, with stark shadows amid the ruins, human silhouettes against bleak, cracked walls.

Interiors remind me of those in "The Blue Angel" (1930),dilapidated, dirty, cheap, drab, and very depressing. In "The Murderers Are Among Us", background music is minimal. Most scenes lack music, and the story is more potent for it. Sound effects consist of squeaky doors, footsteps on wooden floors, and other realistic sounds. The film's casting and acting are fine.

Historically significant as the first German film made in Germany following the end of WWII, "The Murderers Are Among Us" reminds us of the horrors of war. One scene near the end is unforgettable in its severity. Outside at night, with snow gently falling, arc lights create ghostly shadows. The surgeon stands alone amid the rubble, outside a damaged church where people inside are singing "Silent Night". Faces of the people are grim. What a bleak period in human history.

Hildegarde Knef is released from a concentration camp. She returns to a ruined Berlin and her apartment, where she finds WIlhelm Borchert in possession. He will not leave, so she stays in one room and he in another. He's a drunk, but as the movie progresses, they come to care for each other. He also finds that Arno Paulsen is alive -- a man Borchert must kill for some reason.

Visually, the point of interest in this film is the utter ruin of Berlin; some shots show women engaged in the Augean task of shifting the rubble. The story, which turns out to be about war atrocities and the issue of whom should wield punishment is a telling one even yet. The performances are repressed in the face of such events.

Themovie premiered the day before the first war criminals were hanged at

"Die Mörder sind unter uns" or "The Murderers Are Among Us" is a German black-and-white film from 1946, so this one has its 70th anniversary this year already. Writer and director is Wolfgang Staudte and he sure did not waste any time in trying to begin the German coming to terms with the events of the last 10 years. This one is about a man who fought in World War II, but it plays after the war already and the core of the movie is the man running into one of his commanders from the days of war, a man who instructed him and other soldiers to kill many innocent people, including women and children. In theory, this is a very interesting plot, but somehow I was not too well entertained by this story, not half as much as I hoped I would be.

And then there is, of course, also the story of Hildegard Knef's character. Knef is certainly the most known actress from the cast here and still a name people now in Germany of the 21st century. I am afraid this cannot be said about Staudte or lead actor Wilhelm Borchert. But back to her character: She plays a woman after the war who comes back home from a concentration camp and tries to live a somewhat normal life again. Her character is mostly included to soothe the emotional pain of Borchert's character, but honestly, she did almost absolutely nothing for me. Her story could have been so much more interesting with her character's background and early on she seemed as much of a lead as Borchert, but the longer the film ran, the more her character disappeared out of the focus, only to get in fully again, pretty much out of nowhere, for the climax scene in the end.

I believe the story of these two people had a lot more potential than the filmmaker managed to deliver us here. This could have been one of the truly great films made right afterward World War II, because it was so spot-on with the life at this period and the political impact it had. I also believe the actors, especially the lead actor were better than they could show us here because of the baity script that eventually lacks depth though. This is not a problem of the runtime. The film is fairly short, barely makes it to 80 minutes, but yet lacks focus considerably. I do not recommend "Die Mörder sind unter uns". Thumbs down for this great idea lost in execution.