Den sorte drøm (1911)

The young circus rider Stella (Asta Nielsen) is caught between the love of two men: the jeweler Hirsch (Gunnar Helsengreen) and Count Waldberg (Valdemar Psilander). She herself loves the count, but the jeweler challenges him to a game of cards for money. Waldberg starts out lucky, but his luck soon turns, and he loses again and again, eventually being forced to sign an IOU for the astronomical sum of 85,000 marks. In desperation, the count buys a pistol and is about to kill himself, but Stella discovers the pistol and takes it from him. She goes to the jeweler’s home and steals a necklace from him. The jeweler sees the theft in a mirror but does nothing to stop her. Instead, he follows her back to the count, to whom Stella hands the necklace and urges him to sell it so he can pay his debt. After they part, the jeweler grabs her and accuses her of theft, although he does not turn her over to the police, despite having the chance. Instead, he forces her to agree to a dinner date. Meanwhile, the count sells the necklace to another jeweler, from whom jeweler Hirsch buys it back. Stella sets off for her dinner date but forgets her bag, in which the count finds the pistol and a note that leads him to the jeweler’s home. The count accuses her of infidelity and shoots her. With her last strength before dying, she tells him the true circumstances of the matter.