Heilige oder Dirne (1929)

The wealthy Frenchman Raoul lives with his mother and his cousin Therese in a magnificent villa on the Riviera. Therese is deeply in love with her relative, but he seems to return only “brotherly” affection. One day, a visitor arrives: Lydia, a friend of Therese’s, is a passionate woman reputed to be a “man-eater” and immoral. It is not long before Raoul, the master of the house, falls head over heels for the blonde siren from abroad, and the two first become engaged and eventually marry. As befits her nature as a notorious seductress, Lydia does not remain faithful for long, but begins an affair with the plantation owner Gonsalez. A nighttime rendezvous between them does not go unnoticed, but has no consequences, since Raoul believes that the woman he saw must have been Therese. Worried about her virtue, Raoul accordingly reproaches her, hurting the innocent Therese, who had covered for her unfaithful friend in order to spare Raoul. Only when a friend of Raoul’s points out his mistake does Raoul have to apologize to Therese and confront Lydia. Raoul has to realize that his heart truly belongs to kind-hearted Therese.