Dirnentragödie (1927)

Felix, a young student, leaves his family home after an argument and is picked up on the street by Auguste, an aging prostitute, who takes him in. Over the years, she has grown weary and, hardened and disillusioned, has largely resigned herself to her fate. She no longer expects much from life, and so she lets her brutal pimp, Anton, exploit her without complaint. In the spoiled young man, the embittered woman sees a chance for a new life—the illusion of a shared, better future. Anton is not the only one living in Auguste’s apartment; the young prostitute Clarissa lives there too. She shows little consideration for her older colleague and begins seducing the handsome Felix. Meanwhile, Auguste makes plans. She throws her pimp Anton out of the apartment and uses the money she has earned to put a deposit on a pastry shop, hoping it will provide for her and Felix in the future. In the meantime, Anton, a totally unscrupulous man, does everything he can to sow discord. Above all, he wants Auguste back. So he begins trying to set the young man up with Clarissa. When Auguste learns that a relationship is developing between Felix and Clarissa, she is deeply disappointed and furious, and sees all her plans for the future slipping away. So Auguste incites Anton, who is capable of any depravity, to murder Clarissa, her much younger rival for the student’s affection. Felix, unaware of the plot against his new girlfriend, tells Auguste that he loves Clarissa. Auguste then tries at the last moment to stop the contract killing, but she is too late. Only after the bloody deed does Anton realize how pointless his actions were, and he turns himself in to the police. Auguste, utterly despairing and stripped of all hope for a better life together with Felix, then takes her own life. The young man, in turn, remorsefully returns to his family home.