Der goldene Pol (1918)

As every year, master detective Harry Higgs is hosting a party at his London residence. The entire cream of society is there, including people from the financial world. Also present is Suffolk, a stock-market guru who has acquired his immense wealth in the most dubious way. The two get talking, and Suffolk claims that Higgs could be the biggest crook in the city if he weren’t always on the right side of the law. Higgs replies that he could throw all of London into a state of excitement without committing a single crime. A deal is struck: Higgs tells everyone present, including Suffolk, that he will win the wager within 30 days. A little later, Edith Pillwocker, whom Higgs has his eye on, sends him a newspaper clipping containing a matrimonial advertisement. Higgs assumes Suffolk has arranged this, since he now has a keen interest in seeing Higgs fail. Harry therefore decides to involve Suffolk in his wager. And so, time and again, he leads the stock-market speculator by the nose, appearing before him in sometimes grotesque disguises—as a sailor, a wanted criminal, and even once as a cleaning woman. Higgs plays on Suffolk’s boundless greed and eventually even lets him discover the North Pole. Higgs has a rumor spread that the Pole is made of pure gold. But one day Higgs takes his pranks and provocations too far: no fewer than nine police officers leap on him to arrest him. Higgs and the men engage in a wild scuffle … whereupon the detective wakes up in a cold sweat. He has dreamed the whole thing. But the wager is indeed supposed to go ahead. Higgs, however, declares, “It could damage the name of Harry Higgs if I were to carry out the wager.” Then, gritting his teeth, he pays the agreed penalty for failing to fulfill the wager to a charitable foundation and gets engaged to Edith—much to Suffolk’s annoyance, as he too had his eye on the young woman.