Das Geld auf der Straße (1922)

The film is a portrait of the early postwar period, focusing on disreputable financial dealings in banking circles. At the center of the story is a con man who establishes a financial institution for his fraudulent schemes. He believes that money is lying in the street and all one has to do is reach out and take it. To secure his shady operations, he exploits his own son-in-law, the banker Lister, who runs a bank of his own, and puts him to work on his schemes. When Lister uncovers his father-in-law’s fraud, he initially intends to honor the obligations he has undertaken toward him, in order to keep the Lister family name untarnished. But Lister’s brother intervenes to protect the family bank from further trouble. The victim of all these family entanglements is Mabel, the banker’s fiancée. Her relationship with the man she loves does not survive these dramatic developments, and the banker leaves her. But Mabel does not remain alone for long: Lister’s brother then marries her.