Du mein stilles Tal (1955)

During the film’s opening credits, the traditional song “Im schönsten Wiesengrunde” is heard, beginning with the words “Dich, mein stilles Tal.” Nikky von Breithagen, the daughter of Elisabeth and Gert Breithagen, is getting married today. Only three people besides her mother know that Nikki is not really Gert’s daughter, and they are keeping quiet. They are bound by professional secrecy. Nikky is happy because she loves her future husband with all her heart, and he loves her just as much. All their friends and relatives offer their congratulations and wish the young couple a marriage as “happy as their parents’”—or so everyone present assumes. Only Elisabeth’s doctor, a close friend of the family, suspects what Elisabeth must be thinking about and remembering at this very moment. Twenty years ago, Elisabeth married Gert von Breithagen, a dazzlingly handsome, highly respected and wealthy man. Gert loved the young woman. Elisabeth was undecided and had mostly gone along with her parents’ wishes, since they considered Gert the ideal man for their daughter. But shortly before the wedding, the young woman met a man with whom she fell instantly and unconditionally in love. For him, it was apparently only a brief fling, and he disappeared from Elisabeth’s life as quickly as he had come, never to be heard from again. When Elisabeth briefly fainted on her wedding day and the doctor examined her, she was distraught when he discovered that she was pregnant. Gert could not be the father, leaving only Erik Linden. In tears, Elisabeth confessed to her doctor, who was bound by professional secrecy, that Gert was not the father of her child. She did not have the courage to tell her future husband the truth either, and married him knowing she was lying. Gert never questioned that he was Nikki’s father. The relationship between father and “daughter” could hardly have been better. Many years later, Elisabeth unexpectedly ran into the man for whom she still had such strong feelings. Erik, now a respected concert pianist, was certain that Elisabeth was the woman of his life and desperately wanted her to begin a new life with him. Elisabeth went to speak with her pastor and confessed the secret weighing on her marriage. He, too, was bound by the seal of confession. Elisabeth struggled greatly with the decision, but in the end she chose to stay with her husband and child. Even then, she did not reveal the secret of Nikki’s true father to her husband. On Nikki’s wedding day of all days, Gert von Breithagen succumbs to the charms of one of Nikki’s friends. Rita, flattered by the mature man’s interest, does everything she can to win him over. But Gert, who has always sensed that something stands between him and Elisabeth, feels loved and is happy to receive Rita’s tenderness. He even considers getting a divorce. When he discusses it with his lawyer, Dr. Zöller, the lawyer has serious reservations and warns that Rita is mainly after the position at his side and his money. He suggests that Gert put Rita to the test, and she fails miserably. Gert’s friend says nothing to Elisabeth about how serious Gert was about the young woman: professional secrecy. But Elisabeth is a perceptive woman and has noticed that her husband has been growing increasingly distant from her. During this difficult time, she has realized that what binds her to Gert is, after all, love. This realization leads her to approach her husband in a new way. But she keeps her secret to herself. She cannot take Gert’s daughter away from him, nor deprive her daughter of her father, just to ease her own conscience. Now, however, she can live with the situation without resenting fate.