Die unheimliche Wandlung des Alex Roscher (1943)

Alex Roscher is a German customs officer (customs assistant) stationed at the border with Switzerland. While on patrol on skis, he stops a car on a snow-covered side road near Switzerland that is closed to traffic. After checking the driver’s papers and finding them in order, he asks him to turn around and follow him to the customs office on the main road. After inspecting the vehicle, Alex discovers that the driver is his new superior, Senior Government Councillor Dr. Bratt. Bratt had wanted to put Roscher to the test. In the presence of the head of the customs station, Bratt says that Roscher has passed. He then gets to the real reason for his visit to the customs station. “Helen’s Mirror,” a valuable work of art, has been stolen from a museum in Bremen. Bratt suspects that the jewel is to be smuggled into Switzerland through this hard-to-guard stretch of mountainous border. He therefore orders intensified patrols. Thomas, a thief and smuggler, turns to his old “friend” Oskar Wettich, who runs the “Casino” tavern. Thomas asks Wettich to take him, with his suitcase, across the border to “Caduz.” He offers him 2,000 marks for this. The following night, Wettich and Johnny, the head waiter at the “Casino,” plan to smuggle Thomas and his suitcase on foot over the mountains. Johnny, who goes ahead first, is stopped by Alex Roscher, who is out on a night patrol. Johnny talks his way out of it by explaining that he wants to visit relatives in Haßlach, on the other side of the border. Alex directs him to the regular border crossing at the customs station and lets him go. Immediately afterward, a shot is heard. Wettich has not only shot Thomas dead, but while fleeing has also wounded Alex in the forearm with a grazing shot. After recovering from his injury, Alex reports back for duty and is summoned through the head of the customs office to Senior Government Councillor Dr. Bratt. Meanwhile, Wettich travels to “Caduz” to see the gang’s “boss,” the dentist Dr. Eveillard. Eveillard’s accomplice, Margot Marsan, has just been released from a women’s prison after serving her sentence. After Dr. Bratt returns, Alex begins behaving strangely. He lets himself go, and gambles and drinks too much. After losing all his money gambling, Alex takes out loans from Wettich and Johnny, signing promissory notes for them. At the same time, he begins an affair with the attractive Margot Marsan. Alex’s fiancée, Grete, and his father, retired Chief Customs Inspector Roscher, naturally notice the changes in him. When Alex refuses to give up his current way of life, his father tells him to “face the consequences.” To this end, his father puts a pistol on a table. Otherwise, Father Roscher says, he will have to report his son. Wettich and the gang now have Alex completely under their control. But Grete remains loyal to Alex and, in desperation, seeks out Dr. Bratt. Bratt instructs the head of the customs station not to forward a report concerning Alex Roscher. That night, Roscher is also to perform his border duty as usual. The nearby border guards are to be notified. Any further orders will come directly from Dr. Bratt alone. That night, on Dr. Eveillard’s orders, Wettich, Johnny, and Margot Marsan are to retrieve the suitcase containing “Helen’s Mirror,” which fell into a crevice during the struggle between Wettich and Thomas. Beforehand, Alex Roscher had made one last personal contact with the gang and insisted that they retrieve the suitcase that night. While on patrol that night, Alex comes across the group and orders them to stop. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, Wettich and Johnny are killed, and Margot also slips on the mountain and falls into the depths. Dr. Eveillard is then arrested by Swiss police officers on the strength of the overwhelming evidence against him. At the subsequent briefing at Siebenbrunn customs station, Dr. Bratt explains to all the officers present and to Father Roscher that Alex Roscher acted on his orders in order to bring the gang down. The gang members were supposed to believe they had Alex under their control. To achieve this, neither his colleagues, nor his fiancée Grete, nor his father were allowed to know about Alex’s assignment. In the end, Alex Roscher is promoted to customs secretary.