Der Apfel ist ab (1948)

Adam Schmidt, the owner of Adams Apple Juice, is caught between his wife, Lilly Schmidt, and his mistress, Eva Meier-Eden. Unable to make up his mind, he leaves one day, followed by his faithful dachshund. He tries to drown and hang himself, but fails, eventually ending up at the Weissensee sanatorium, run by Professor Petri. They intend to treat him. Adam is given an apple that is supposed to serve as a constant warning and that he must not eat. After meeting Eva at Café Paradies and Lilly at Satan’s Good Room, Adam nevertheless takes a bite of the apple and is discharged from the sanatorium by Professor Petri. Adam misses the last train and therefore spends the night in the sanatorium’s waiting area. He dreams that he awakens in Heaven as the first human being. There he meets Peter and Lucifer, who are discussing the continued construction of the world, but Adam accidentally breaks the globe. The pieces of the Earth now have to be put back together first. Bored, Adam is allowed to accompany Peter to the Heavenly Workshops, where Eve is being built. There is also a model of a dachshund in the workshops, and Adam reacts enthusiastically. He talks one of the workers into bringing the dog to life for him. The dachshund joins Adam, and so man has “gone to the dogs.” A short time later, Eve comes to life and makes Adam’s acquaintance. Lucifer harasses her, whereupon Peter banishes him from Heaven and sends him to Hell. Since the Earth is not yet finished, Peter sends Adam and Eve to Paradise, an exhibit developed as a prototype of an idealized Earth. Not much happens in Paradise. A lone apple hanging from a small tree is not to be picked, according to a warning sign. The Devil takes Adam and Eve to Hell, offers them a feast, a pistol, and a mirror, and finally demands that they pay for these amenities. Since neither of them has any money, the Devil announces that he will present them with the bill later, on Earth. Because he could not keep the two humans in Hell, Lucifer sends the serpent Lilith to Paradise. While Eve is asleep, Lilith seduces Adam and persuades him to pick the apple for her. Not wearing his glasses, Peter mistakes Lilith for Eve and expels the wrong woman, along with Adam, from Paradise. Miss Seraphim tries in vain to alert him to his mistake. Adam and Lilith are sent to the unfinished Earth, where they are still living many years later. Adam has risen to become a managing director. Lilith has a secret lover in Lucifer, a tax consultant. Miss Seraphim, for her part, manages to have Eve sent from Heaven to Earth. She introduces herself to Adam as a new employee, and after a while he recognizes her. The situation of a man caught between two women leads to a conference between Heaven and Hell, at which Peter initially approves of bigamy, but then adjourns the conference. Adam, Eve, and Lilith are outraged, and Adam decides he would rather be a bachelor. At a second conference, Eve and Lilith are fused into a perfect mixture; a woman resembling both of them is created. Adam Schmidt wakes up in the sanatorium’s entrance hall. The first train is due to leave shortly, and he hurries to the stop. There he sees again the Eve-Lilith woman from his dream and follows her onto the departing tram.