Der Mann, der sich verkauft (1925)

The actress Marion de L’Orme attends the racetrack with the industrialist Jan Bracca, where the crowd waits in feverish anticipation for the big race, with the favorite Maximum. The valuable horse belongs to Achim von Wehrstädt, who was once involved with Marion. It is a catastrophe for von Wehrstädt when his horse loses the race, since he had bet all his money on it to win. When Achim meets Marion, she makes him a peculiar-sounding proposition. Since she would like to be a wife for a change instead of a mistress, but Bracca is married, Achim is to provide grounds for a divorce, as Jan’s wife Daisy would not agree to a separation voluntarily. Achim is to seduce her, for which he will be suitably compensated. Given his financial situation, von Wehrstädt accepts. When he meets Daisy, he is captivated by her charm and affectionate manner. He is also enchanted by the way she treats her daughter. His admiration for this true lady turns into love, which Daisy returns. So he asks Bracca to release him from the arrangement, even though he has already received an advance of 100,000 marks. The banker refuses to agree and instead offers him an even larger check. They part in helpless anger. Afterward, von Wehrstädt wanders aimlessly through the city and, finding himself in what seems to him a hopeless predicament, ends up in a casino. There he wins a sum exactly equal to the amount Bracca had offered him in his check. When the banker is found shot dead the next morning, von Wehrstädt is arrested as the prime suspect. To avoid compromising Daisy, Achim remains silent, even though he has an alibi that could prove his innocence. Fortunately for him, Count Harden, who is in love with Daisy’s friend Eva and is sure Achim had nothing to do with the matter, conducts further investigations on his own. The police inspector in charge, by contrast, already considers the case solved with Achim as the culprit and intends to prove it with a chain of circumstantial evidence. Count Harden, however, finds and reveals the real murderer. Achim’s chauffeur, whom he had dismissed after his financial disaster, wanted to frame his former employer for a murder that he himself had committed for thoroughly base reasons.