Helmut Käutner

Born Mar. 25, 1908, in Düsseldorf. German (FRG) director and screen writer. Member of the German Academy of Arts (Berlin, GDR).

Käutner worked in a Munich cabaret between 1931 and 1935 and in a drama theater after 1935. He has worked in films since 1938. Käutner’s political film comedy Kitty and the International Conference (1939) was banned by the fascist censor, and his other films of the period failed to satisfy the needs of military propaganda. These films included Romance in a Minor Key (1943) and 7 Great Freedom Street (1944).

Käutner has produced a number of films in the Federal Republic of Germany with a critical liberal orientation: In Those Days (1947), The Devil’s General (1955), and The Captain From Köpenick (1956; after the play by C. Zuckmayer; released in the Soviet Union as The Strength of a Uniform). His antifascist and pacifist films include The Last Bridge (1953; joint Austrian-Yugoslav production) and The Rest Is Silence (1959). Black Gravel (1961) deals with the life of unskilled laborers in the FRG. Käutner also produces commercial entertainment films, such as The House in Montevideo (1963).