Aufruhr des Blutes (1929)

The three city boys Oskar, Georg, and the wily, eccentric Fred are close friends. But they’ve had enough of home and drive back to nature, hoping to live like vagabonds for a while. They pitch their tent by a lake amid woods and meadows. Soon they are no longer without female company: the young Vera joins them, having fallen from a traveling circus—or, more precisely, from the caravan of a tightrope troupe—and eventually run away. Each of the three young men wants her, but only Oskar manages to win her over. Fred and Georg then have to vacate the three-man tent and find somewhere else to spend the night. When their supplies begin to run low, Oskar heads back to the city to stock up. Georg sees his chance and tries to steal “his” Vera from the absent Oskar. Unlike Oskar, who sees Vera merely as a trophy to be conquered, Georg is genuinely interested in her, and she seems to have fallen for him too. Oskar fumes with rage when he returns and has to believe that Georg has stolen his temporary sweetheart from him. The two come to blows. But in the end, their friendship prevails over their rivalry for the alluring woman. When the young men return to the tent, Vera has already disappeared: she remains a carefree, rootless circus girl whose home is the open road and whose way of life is to keep moving.