Fräulein Else (1929)

Else Thalhof, the well-to-do daughter of a respected Viennese lawyer, lives a life largely free of worry and sorrow. While spending a carefree winter holiday in snowy St. Moritz, she receives a letter from her mother revealing the truth about her father’s situation. Dr. Thalhof is in serious financial trouble: he has embezzled money entrusted to him and lost it speculating on the stock market. Her mother now asks Else to approach the wealthy art dealer Dorsday for a loan. The timing is favorable, since Dorsday is also staying in St. Moritz. The art dealer is much older than Else and clearly takes a great interest in her. Dorsday is willing to help the family and grant them a loan of 30,000 gulden—but only on one condition: he wants to see Else naked. Else, a self-assured young woman, finds the decision extremely difficult. On the one hand, she desperately wants to save her father from the predicament he brought upon himself; on the other, she would be putting herself at the mercy of a man who unscrupulously exploits her desperate situation and, by this act, would effectively reduce her to a prostitute. Caught between two evils, Else eventually swallows an overdose of Veronal and goes to Dorsday wearing only a fur coat. When she lets the valuable garment fall before his eyes in the hotel lobby and Dorsday finally sees her naked, the young woman collapses unconscious and dies shortly afterward.