Via Mala is a 1945 German drama film directed by Josef von Báky and starring Karin Hardt, Carl Wery and Viktor Staal.

In a rural village, the tyrannical Jonas Lauretz intimidates his family, mistress and neighbours.

Eventually it emerges that it was not Silvelie who murdered Jonas Lauretz but the village innkeeper Bündner.

The Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels then halted the project because it was "too gloomy"[3] It was revived a year later, and in 1943 filming began at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and on location in Mayrhofen in Tyrol.

[2] The downbeat plot was considered unsuitable in light of the recent war situation, as German forces were being pushed back on all fronts and escapist films were preferred.