| Master of Life and Death | |
| Director: | Victor Vicas |
| Producer: | Wenzel Lüdecke |
| Based On: | Master of Life and Death by Carl Zuckmayer |
| Starring: | Maria Schell Ivan Desny Wilhelm Borchert |
| Music: | Hans-Martin Majewski |
| Editing: | Ira Oberberg |
| Studio: | Interwest |
| Distributor: | Gloria Film |
| Runtime: | 87 minutes |
| Country: | West Germany |
Master of Life and Death (German: Herr über Leben und Tod) is a 1955 West German drama film directed by Victor Vicas and starring Maria Schell, Ivan Desny and Wilhelm Borchert.[1] It was shot at the Spandau Studios in West Berlin and on location around the city and in Brittany. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Hans Ledersteger and Ernst Richter. It is based on the 1938 novel of the same title by Carl Zuckmayer.[2]
Barbara is married to the distinguished professor of medicine Georg Bertram who once saved her father's life. When they have a mentally handicapped child together his clinical coldness comes to the fore and he wants to commit euthanasia on the child. She stops him and takes the child away to Brittany in the hope that a change of location and nursing will help them to improve. While there she encounters a much more sympathetic doctor.