Der Saratogakoffer (1917)

Harry Higgs’s uncle, Mr. Clark, has died. He appointed Harry as the executor of his will. As trustee, Harry is to keep an eye on the sums of money left to his cousin Reginald, who is as feckless as he is frivolous, so that he does not squander his inheritance. Reginald Clark lives in Paris and has begun an affair with the married Mrs. von Sawerski. She is on the run; she had already been in Brussels and London, always with her jealous, much older husband close on her heels. Mrs. von Sawerski meets Higgs at the station and asks him to take her Saratoga trunk to London. During the customs formalities on arrival, Higgs has to open the trunk, and inside lies Reginald’s corpse! A little later, Higgs learns from the newspaper that Reginald is said to have been killed in a car accident in Brussels. So there are two dead men. Higgs is confused at first, but eventually gets to the bottom of the mystery of the two corpses. Both bodies are identified as Reginald Clark. Higgs discovers that the maid and her boyfriend, the Sawerskis’ valet, had drugged Reginald in order to rob him. Reginald died of a heart attack as a result of this assault. The valet promptly stowed Higgs’s dead cousin in Madame’s Saratoga trunk and, since he greatly resembled the dead man, travelled to Brussels himself using Reggie’s papers, where he was killed in an accident.