Ein Herz spielt falsch (1953)

Peter van Booven, an adventurer and bon vivant, is constantly short of money and in debt to criminals. After an affair with Gerda Peters, an employee of the hatmaker Kersten, she becomes pregnant. Peter now tries to find someone to arrange an abortion for Gerda. After his inquiries come to nothing, he is also turned away at the hospital by Professor Linz, an old friend of his late father. There, however, he happens to overhear the professor talking about a patient: his niece, Sibylla Zander, who is incurably ill with a malignant growth on her spinal cord and will soon die. Peter has known Sibylla since school, where he always called her an “old bag” because she wore glasses even as a child. He gets in touch with her again and visits her in the hospital. The professor disapproves, because he knows Peter is after the wealthy young woman’s inheritance. But since he does not want to tell his niece that she probably has only six to nine months to live, he can hardly persuade Sibylla that Booven is not right for her. The charmer quickly wins Sibylla’s heart, however, and she blossoms in her new love. Before long, they are engaged. Meanwhile, the pregnant Gerda tries to take her own life by jumping into a river. She is rescued at the last moment, but loses her unborn child. Gerda then gets together with her boss, the hatmaker Kersten, who had already supported her and had wanted to marry her and accept the child as his own. When Peter and Sibylla are married and away on their honeymoon, Booven falls more and more in love with his wife, though that was not what he had intended. He now realizes that he no longer wants to live without Sibylla, the only person who believed in him and trusted him. To save Sibylla—who still knows nothing about her fate—he secretly transfers large sums of money from her company abroad to a specialist, Dr. Lundi. But it is too late for a cure. When Director Hersbach uncovers the cleverly disguised transfers at the company and informs Sibylla, she finally learns the truth about her condition. Sibylla dies, but thanks to his wife, Peter has become a good person.