Holzapfel weiß alles (1932)

Johannes Georg Holzapfel is a thoroughly kind-hearted and harmless fellow. A street musician who, like many of his contemporaries in the waning days of the Weimar Republic, has lost his steady job, he tries to make ends meet as best he can. His world is made up of back courtyards, and his instrument is the accordion. Holzapfel has set up his own little kingdom in a disused railway carriage. One day, he walks into a pub frequented mainly by all sorts of crooks. Since they think he is one of their own and are expecting another gangster from out of town, the skinny Holzapfel is mistaken for one of them—a “big-time crook.” So they are rather careless when some of the criminals discuss their “next job.” A few of the crooks are planning to attack a young girl named Eva Stein and her little brother, Teddy, who are both arriving from the United States. The two are due at the station today, where the supposedly wealthy newcomers are to be robbed. Holzapfel cannot stop the criminals from attacking and abducting Eva, but the kind-hearted musician manages to save little Teddy from the same fate and takes the boy home with him for the time being. The criminals hope to get their hands on a fortune kept in a safe through Eva, but they need the key to it. And Teddy happens to be wearing that very key on a cord around his neck. Holzapfel’s railway carriage seems a safe place for the little boy. The following day, Holzapfel visits Consul van Doeren, the siblings’ uncle. There he learns that Eva has already been released after a large ransom was paid. The consul hands Holzapfel one hundred marks for his efforts. Holzapfel intends to use the money to buy Teddy some toys. But when he returns to his railway carriage, the boy has vanished without a trace. Only the safe key has been left behind. Holzapfel goes back to the consul and is astonished to find that Teddy has arrived there too. This puzzles Holzapfel: how could the boy have made his way back to the supposed uncle, just as Eva had before him? The trusting street musician begins to grow suspicious, and rightly believes that this supposed consul may be the head of the gang of criminals. Having grown very fond of little Teddy in such a short time, Holzapfel resolves to take down the gang on his own. Their trail leads through the cabaret “The Golden Spider” and the crooks’ pub mentioned earlier to van Doeren. In the end, Holzapfel turns the gang’s boss and his accomplices over to the police.