Der Trödler von Amsterdam (1925)

In a shabby, poorly lit alley in Amsterdam’s old town, the poor, elderly junk dealer Arent Bergh runs a small shop where odds and ends occasionally find a willing buyer. The only friend left to the old eccentric in his dusty little world is Oliver Morrison. A learned scholar, Morrison can talk with the junk dealer on a philosophical level about the things in life. Arent’s whole heart belongs to his daughter, Annette, who, however, does not want to wither away in this dreary, dismal hole. So it is easy for her best friend to persuade her to go out with her in the evenings to the city’s entertainment venues, where vice and sin reign, to party and dance. One day, at one of these seedy places, Annette meets the notorious playboy Gilbert, who already has a substantial criminal career behind him. Gilbert radiates the allure of the wild, untamed, and forbidden, and Annette follows him all too willingly. Alarmed by the bad company his daughter has fallen in with, the junk dealer sets out to find and save her. In a disreputable dive, he sees his daughter and immediately gets into a proper brawl with Gilbert, the seducer of his “little innocent.” Arent at once recognizes the man as the customer who, not long before, pawned a dark frock coat with him—a coat Bergh happens to be wearing right now. During the fight, the lining tears, and bundles of money fall out, money from an unsolved robbery-murder. Realizing how deeply Annette is already attached to the criminal, Bergh tells the police that he was the one who committed the robbery-murder. But Morrison now proves to be a true friend and intervenes, exposing the real culprit. Another fight breaks out, during which Gilbert is killed by a falling hanging lamp. Annette finally understands what a mistake she has made and will instead find in Morrison a new, and this time respectable, man to spend her life with.