Helmut Käutner

Van der Valk and the Rich

Dutch police officer Van der Valk is pulled away for a private investigation for a friend of the chief of police to find the missing junior manager. When he gets to know his woman, he is fascinated by the thought of running away with her.

Temptation in the Summer Wind

Fun on a boat.

Hauser's Memory

A scientist is persuaded by the government to inject himself with the brain fluid of a dying colleague in order to preserve missile-defense secrets. However, he finds that he is now torn between his own wife and that of his dead colleague, who was a Nazi sympathizer.

Bend Sinister

In a fictitious European city known as Padukgrad, where a government arises following the rise of a philosophy known as "Ekwilism", which discourages the idea of anyone being different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society.

Without Trumpet or Drum

Summer 1870. Following the French defeat at Sedan. Léon, a soldier in a detachment isolated in the Ardennes forest, is sent in search of water. When he discovers the most peaceful of rivers, he decides to undress and bathe in it. At bend of the river he catches sight of another naked swimmer. It's a Prussian! Both men start bickering a bit: aren't they supposed to be arch enemies? But they soon fraternize. Unfortunately the patrol has not vanished in the haze and they hear it coming. Each man gets hold of his uniform and runs away in two opposite directions. The only trouble is that Fritz the Prussian has donned the French uniform and Leon the Prussian one!

Der Schinderhannes

1802: The adventurous life story of Hans Bückler, known as “Schinderhannes”, who fights against the French occupying forces and large landowners who exploit poor farmers in the Hunsrück region during the Napoleonic Wars.

Monpti

A poor 22 years old Hungarian man who's recently arrived in Paris meets a seemingly wealthy 17 years old Parisian girl. They fall in love, but tragedy ensues when the truth behind the girl is revealed.

The Zurich Engagement

Juliane Thomas is an ambitious but unemployed young writer. After breaking up with her lover she works at a dentist friend to make ends meet. One day she instantly falls in love with one of the patients (Jean Berner) and promptly writes a movie script about the encounter in which she projects her own fantasies about how things will turn out eventually. By coincidence this movie script is picked up by a film director who happens to be Berner's closest friend and from then on things become very complicated...

The Girl from Flanders

A love story between a German soldier and a young Flemish woman amidst World War I.

The Last Bridge

A German nurse gets sent to the front because she gives medical aid to a wounded Yugoslav partisan during World War II.

Epilogue

The reporter Peter Zabel stumbles upon the sinking of the luxury yacht Orplid in Hamburg on August 14, 1949. The ship went down with a wedding party run by artists on a pleasure trip from Hamburg to Scotland . In spite of good weather and no technical problems. Out of personal curiosity, Zabel starts researching. Could the sinking of Orplid have political reasons? A German political thriller and film noir inspired by Carol Reed's "The Third Man".

The Original Sin

An apple juice producer can't decide between his wife and his secretary and tries to commit suicide. Being committed to psychiatry, he falls asleep and dreams of adventures as Adam and Eve in heaven and hell.

Port of Freedom

Singing sailor Hannes, who now entertains the crowd at St. Pauli's Hippodrome after years at sea, promises his dying brother that he will take care of his ex-girlfriend Gisa. Taking Gisa to Hamburg to live with him, Hannes quickly falls in love with her, but soon has to face Gisa's affection for another man, Willem.

Romance in a Minor Key

A grieving husband tries to uncover the truth behind his wife's suicide, leading him to discover a tragic tale of infidelity and redemption.

Cruiser Emden

Story of the Kreuzer (cruiser) Emden and his men during WWI, garnished with a love Story, rivalry and heroism.