Die verschwundene Frau (1929)

Everything in the Bertrams’ home revolves around Susi, the dog, who means the world to her master, Adam. His wife, Eva, sees things quite differently: she and the aging dog cannot stand each other. When Adam summarily fires all the household staff over a trivial matter involving Susi, Eva has had enough. A fierce argument erupts between her and her husband, and Eva announces that she will leave the house and return only when the dog is gone. After a while, Adam gives in and sends a letter to his friend Dr. Fritz Steiner by way of Susi. In it, Adam apparently asks Fritz to poison the dog. The letter goes missing and, by a roundabout route, ends up in the hands of local police officer Ameisel, who was present during the decisive quarrel between Adam and Eva. He draws the wrong conclusions from the request to poison someone, and since Eva is the missing woman referred to in the title, he assumes that Adam Bertram must have poisoned his wife. As a result, Adam is arrested on suspicion of murder. Dr. Steiner himself has quite different problems. Recently, he met a woman while she was bathing in a pond, and retrieved her clothes, which her dog had run off with. The two then grew closer. Since they never officially introduced themselves, Steiner now tries to find out the name of the unknown woman after the fact. A telegram that might help Steiner identify her summons him to Vienna at short notice. And because Officer Ameisel watches everything very closely that has to do with Adam Bertram, the dog Susi, and the missing Mrs. Bertram—and because Adam’s letter to Steiner, which has fallen into his hands, is central to a murder investigation—the simple-minded village policeman assumes that Dr. Steiner, who has been called away to Vienna, may be fleeing because he could be an accomplice in the crime against Eva Bertram. Steiner is consequently added to the wanted list as well. Meanwhile, Eva Bertram is staying incognito in Velden am Wörthersee and enjoying herself. Her husband had suspected she was at her intended destination, St. Wolfgang, and had people search for her there, so Eva continues to be missing. In the meantime, she has left again after an ugly jealousy scene in Velden with a dancer who accused Eva of trying to steal her suitor. Eva paid her hotel bill with a cheque. But because the cheque bears the signature of a woman presumed to have been “murdered,” the police begin looking for the supposed cheque forger, who might also be an accomplice to the murder. Eva is tracked down, arrested, and… charged with murdering herself. At last, everything is cleared up, and the “dead” woman returns to her husband.