Die Welt ohne Maske (1934)

The inventor Tobias Bern, a likable, absent-minded loner, meets his neighbor Harry by chance. Both live in a Berlin apartment building without jobs or a steady income. They decide to work together to make Dr. Bern’s invention—a wireless transmission of television images—a success. Their goal is to enter a competition. Television is finally about to make its breakthrough, but the big electrical companies have so far offered television sets only as astronomically expensive one-off items. Harry takes on the task of raising the money so the invention can be completed in time for the competition. In the process, he encounters the industrialist Costa, portrayed by Hubert von Meyerinck entirely in keeping with the sensibilities of the time. The international businessman embodies everything that makes a person unlikeable. He is vain, arrogant, lustful, and selfish, as well as dishonest and immoral. He is accompanied by his “sleazy” French servant, Jean. When Costa learns of the potential of the new invention from Berlin, he tries everything to prevent its completion and, ultimately, its entry in the television competition. The story ends happily: the new people’s television receiver will make the new medium accessible to everyone for 250 Reichsmarks.