Das Recht aufs Dasein (1913)

Joseph Dermott is released from prison. As he walks through the city streets, he hears an unsettling noise coming from inside an apartment building. He goes in and sees a woman, Edith, lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs. He approaches her and tries to find out what happened and help her, but she appears to be dead. Fearing the trouble a man with a criminal record like his might face if found near a corpse, Joseph leaves. The consequences are not long in coming: the police investigate, find Edith alive but unconscious, and trace the fingerprints found at the scene easily back to Joseph Dermott. A substantial reward is offered for his capture, as he is now suspected of assault and attempted murder. Posters put up on walls show his photograph and list the alleged assailant’s distinguishing features: a tattoo on his left arm and a left little finger shorter than normal. It is because of this latter detail that Dermott is identified in a nearby bar. But he escapes arrest, and a chase begins, unfolding perilously across terraces and rooftops, beams suspended high above the ground, metal cables hanging from pulleys, and scaffolding. In the end, Joseph evades the police and finds temporary refuge at a female friend’s home. But, acting on information from a dutiful local woman tempted by the reward, who has discovered where Joseph is by spying on the neighbors with a small mirror, the police arrive at his friend’s home. She denies having taken him in, while Joseph flees once more and is chased again. Meanwhile, it becomes known that Edith is recovering, but suffers from amnesia and cannot remember what happened to her. The second chase is even more daring than the first—across river bridges, over the roofs and along the sides of boats and moving trains, which even pass over him while he lies on the tracks—and ends when Joseph collapses, exhausted and injured, at the side of a road. He is picked up by Dr. Kraft, a neurologist who happens to be driving by, and admitted to his clinic. Edith is also taken to the same clinic. The doctor hopes to restore her memory by operating on her, but a blood donation is needed, and the doctor announces that the donor will be generously rewarded. Joseph therefore volunteers. During the transfusion, Kraft notices Joseph’s tattoo, identifies him as the (alleged) assailant, and calls the police, who arrive and arrest him. But Edith’s operation is a complete success. She regains her memory and recalls that she ended up unconscious at the bottom of the stairs because she had fallen; it was an accident, then. Joseph is cleared and released. Edith wants to thank the generous donor in person, and it seems that love is beginning to blossom between them.