The "Adam and Eve" story is updated and lightly satirized in the German Der Apfel Ist Ab (The Apple Fell). Adam (Bobby Todd) happens to be married to someone else when he falls in love with his secretary Eve (Bettina Moissi). His guilt over his illicit lustings sends Adam to a Godlike psychiatrist (Arno Assman). To test Adam's will power, the doctor gives his patient an apple, ordering him not to eat it. Alas, this strategy is as ineffectual now as it was "In the Beginnng". Roundly condemned by religious leaders in Bavaria even before it was produced, Der Apfel Ist Ab was likewise blocked from several American movie theatres by outraged clergymen. The controversy had no adverse effect on director Helmut Kaeutner, who went on to make such internationally popular films as The Last Bridge (1954).
by Hal Erickson
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