Da hält die Welt den Atem an (1927)

The famous actress Adda van Royt is to play the lead in theater director Volkmar’s next revue. One day, her money is stolen. To her astonishment, the artist soon receives a phone call in which the culprit confesses that he committed the theft while in a state of mental confusion. The stranger asks her to come to a hotel, where he intends to return the stolen sum. The well-known theater manager Morris Broock is staying at the same hotel. The American, who was once rejected by Adda when he courted her, now sees his chance to make up ground with the actress. Morris recognizes the man waiting for her at the hotel as the thief, since he saw that very gentleman fleeing Adda’s room immediately after the theft. He is the equally handsome and impoverished aristocrat Klaus von Longard, a former officer who now wants to speak with Adda face to face. As the jealous Broock threatens to go too far, Adda, who has taken a liking to Longard, promptly introduces the stranger as her fiancé, hoping that Broock will then back off. But Morris has no intention of giving up Adda. Instead, he wants revenge on the woman he loves and hatches a plot. To deny Adda the coveted leading role, the American offers to help the theater director, who is struggling to finance the production, pay for the revue with his own money—on condition that the female lead go to Adda’s rival, Kitty Lerron, instead. When Adda learns of this, she confronts Broock. During their heated exchange, a shot is fired from a hiding place behind a door curtain, and Broock collapses, struck. Soon both Adda and Longard come under suspicion of having shot the American. After some twists and turns, it emerges that Broock’s secretary committed the murder because he no longer wanted to be bullied by his despotic boss. The culprit then kills himself, and Adda can finally marry her Klaus von Longard and set off on their honeymoon.