Das Buch des Lasters (1917)

The young scientist Baron Horst von Franken is working on a scholarly book titled The Psychology of Vice. As part of his field research, Franken visits dives, where he hopes to find the very vices he is writing about. There he meets the young aristocrat Gerda von Westolf, who has long taken a personal interest in him and his work. She does not know that Franken has already given his heart to the young music student Hilde Norten, an exceptional piano talent. But Franken has a rival for Hilde’s affection in the grotesquely ugly sculptor Franz Histrich. And Histrich is ruthless in the means he uses to bring Franken under his spell. Through his demonic power, the sculptor manages to impose his will on Franken, so that one day the baron ends up in Frau von Westolf’s boudoir, where she tries every artifice to seduce him. But Franken’s will is stronger, and he manages to tear himself away from Gerda. One day Histrich gains access to Franken’s study and begins modeling a bust of the scientist. When the baron discovers the sculptor, he immediately throws him out. The next day, Horst von Franken finds the white bust, a likeness of himself, in his study. From then on, the bust exerts a sinister power over the researcher. When Horst tells Hilde about it, she tries to reassure him. Meanwhile, Gerda has visited the old Baron Franken, hoping he will use his influence on the young Horst to persuade him to marry her—Gerda. But the younger Franken tells his father that he loves Hilde, not Gerda. The old baron, however, favors Gerda, who is of the appropriate social standing, and disowns his son because he absolutely refuses to give up Hilde. Horst and Hilde eventually marry, but Histrich’s dark machinations against von Franken do not end there. Histrich’s influence has by now grown so strong that he can lure von Franken back to a dark dive, where he again encounters Gerda. Horst, as if remotely controlled by Histrich, harasses and kisses her, then draws a revolver to shoot her. Horrified, Gerda flees outside. One day the old baron dies, and Horst becomes the new lord of the castle. Histrich’s influence has made him very ill, and one night he staggers into his study in a feverish delirium. In an old book, Horst reads about the licentious life of Queen Fredegund, the wife of King Chilperic I. In his imagination, Horst becomes Chilperic, while Fredegund takes on Gerda’s features. As his madness takes hold, Chilperic/Horst throws a burning log from the fireplace in front of the bust of himself. Soon the whole room is ablaze. Hilde wakes, rushes into the smoke-filled study, and drags her unconscious husband through a secret passage into a chapel. When Horst von Franken wakes again, Histrich’s evil spell has been lifted from him.