Ten-year old Emil Tischbein travels by bus from Neustadt to Berlin, carrying an envelope containing 400 marks that his mother has entrusted him to deliver to his grandmother. Emil falls asleep during the bus ride and wakes up to find the money gone. He is sure that the thief is Grundeis, the shifty man who was sitting next to him. Emil follows Grundeis to a Berlin cafe and summons a policeman, but Grundeis escapes to a rendezvous with The Baron, his underworld associate. Emil enlists the help of a group of child "detectives" led by the street urchin Gustav, and together they track down Grundeis and overhear him plotting with The Baron and his accomplice Müller to rob a large Berlin bank by tunneling to its vault. Emil is captured and forced to assist in the criminal plot. After the bank vault is blown open, Grundeis is doublecrossed by The Baron and Müller and left behind with Emil in the tunnel to be blown up by a dynamite fuse, but Gustav arrives in time to save them. The child detectives pursue the thieves and alert more children in the neighborhood who also give chase. The Baron and Muller are surrounded by the children and arrested by the police. Emil receives a reward which he intends to share with the other children.
Cast
Walter Slezak as The Baron
Bryan Russell as Emil Tischbein
Roger Mobley as Gustav
Heinz Schubert as Grundeis the thief
Peter Ehrlich as Müller
Cindy Cassell as Pony
Elsa Wagner as Grandma
Eva Ingeborg Scholz as Frau Tischbein, Emil's mother
Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote that "Walt Disney has come up with one of his best children's pictures," stating that Tewksbury's direction "makes all the difference. He has kept the kiddies from gushing too coyly, suppressed the mugging of a comic trio of thieves, photographed the fresh Berlin setting in effective color, and juxtaposed suspense and wit with a nice, bouncing pace." Variety called the film "an interesting project" with "the customary distinguishable Disney mark to give it class," but without the same appeal to adults as "say, Disney's previous moppet classic, 'Mary Poppins.'" Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "falls somewhere between the moppet trade and not-too-discriminating adults." The Monthly Film Bulletin found it "pleasantly presented, if without any distinction."
