Maria Forescu

Gerhard Lamprecht sketches a cross-section of Germany's new post-war society, with its winners, social climbers, and losers, represented by the social microcosm of an apartment building. The gossip-mad Frau Mierig from the rear building gives the newly-arrived Frau Kaminski, the janitor's wife, a lively initiation into the tenants and their peculiarities.

A banker who had fallen out with his family stipulated in his will that his fortune should only pass to the person in possession of the five keys he distributed to his relatives during his lifetime 80 years after his death. Only with all five keys can the cassette in the vault of a bank be opened, granting access to the deceased's assets. 75 years after the banker's death, the fugitive crook Murphy comes into possession of one of the keys, together with a list of the names of the owners of the four remaining keys. Over the next five years, he manages to obtain two more keys by criminal means. Now he just has to get the fourth key from Carlo and the fifth key from the young, rich widow Maria. Any means will do. But the unscrupulous villain has not reckoned with Carlo's shrewdness, who initially falls under suspicion himself, but then takes up the pursuit of the criminal.

Thirteen wealthy American daughters visiting Europe are secretly abducted in Berlin by a dubious guide and governess. Stenographer Eddie, who missed their arrival, discovers a plea for help from one girl and pursues the kidnappers across the countryside. After capture and escape, he ultimately tracks them down, rescues the young women, wins their gratitude, and secures his dream job as a reporter.

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Ayan, Maharajah of Eschnapur, believes that his wife, Princess Savitri, has been unfaithful to him with officer Mac Allan. He decides to bury her alive, so he sends the Yogi Ramigani to England to look for Herbert Rowland, an architect; but when he orders him to build a tomb, Rowland refuses.

A wife, bored by her overweight slob of a husband, gives in to the temptation of a slickly seductive poet.

A young woman in Berlin is offered a job at a night club in Budapest. There she is abducted and brought to a brothel in Athens.

Dida Ibsen, daughter of impoverished farmers, has, according to her father's will, to marry the main creditor. But she refuses and decides to live with a married man as a mistress, till he gets his divorce. In the town she opens a restaurant with the money of her wealthy lover, from whom she soon gets pregnant, but their dreams of marriage fail, his wife refuses the divorce. After a while, she decides to marry one of the regular guests at her restaurant, van Galen, who spent quite some time in the tropics and because of this is at the brink of madness. Shortly after the marriage his condition worsens and life becomes hell for Dida.

Susanne Braun is keen to meet her father who she has never seen, but who supports her financially. She visits the Berlin lawyer who oversees the monthly maintenance payments, but he sets her on completely the wrong track. Consequently she encounters several potential fathers.

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The short film features a classic femme fatale archetype (played by Maria Forescu alongside co-star Paul Meffert) who dramatically drives forward the emotional and dramatic tension. The narrative mood shifts rather abruptly into an energetic chase sequence set around a local fair or carnival environment, utilizing contemporary dynamic props (such as an electrically operated cable car) to heighten the suspense.

Tamara becomes addicted to cocaine but hides from her daughter by moving in with the dealer Mangol. The father tells his daughter that her mother has died, but years later the daughter rediscovers her mother appearing on stage. Mangol pursues the daughter, but Tamara intervenes before dying amongst family members.

In the very old-fashioned town of Ostend suddenly 13 suitcases are delivered to the Grand Hotel, with a note, that O.F. will be here soon and needs 6 rooms. This event, probably the biggest in 300 years, starts a small wave of modernisation, yet everybody is wondering who O.F. is.

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An unknown guest checks into an obscure hotel. He is a burly but well-dressed gentleman carrying an umbrella and a tree frog in a glass. This man spends most of his time wandering the hallways and staircases of the inn, ostensibly to hunt for flies to feed his pet. But quite obviously, there is more to it than that: the man also listens at doors and peeks through their keyholes.

It was not just the children who were treated badly by the wealthy Weimar republic. Robert Kramer is released from prison but struggles to adjust to civilian life. His father disowns him, his wife has left him for another man. There is no work. He eventually arrives in a shelter for the homeless, and seeks salvation through Emma, a prostitute.

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Andreas Rellnow decides to leave his troubled parents and pursue an artistic career. As a violin virtuoso, he quickly became popular and a first-class heart-breaker.

Young Steffi goes to the city to take a job in a factory and falls for the son of the owner.

A wealthy skirt-chasing drunkard marries a simple country gal, yet he doesn't take time off from his regular 'affairs'.

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A Bolshevik agitator is enticing workers into a violent rebellion in post-WWI Berlin, in order to create anarchy. He charms the wife of a factory director into helping him, but the forces of law and order are fighting back.