Nie wieder Liebe (1931)

The wealthy American playboy Sandercroft has had enough of women; in recent years, the fairer sex has disappointed him too often. So for the next five years, his motto is to be “Never love again.” His equally wealthy friend Jack bets that he will never be able to stick to it, whereupon the two men wager half a million dollars. Since Sandercroft is determined not to lose and the temptations posed by women would be too great on land, he decides to set off on a long voyage across the world’s oceans aboard his luxury yacht, the “Odysseus,” with like-minded companions, including his loyal servant Jean. Sandercroft also gives Jean the special task of keeping him away from women at all costs, should a shore leave ever become necessary. For four years, everything goes well, but the resolve of the abstainers is slowly but surely weakening. Some of the sailors would like to hold a woman in their arms again, but Sandercroft has no intention of giving in. His crew, a collection of rogues, grows increasingly sullen, and there is a hint of mutiny in the air. Then chance intervenes when they fish a shipwrecked woman out of the English Channel between Dover and Calais. The soaking-wet young woman is wearing a swimsuit that further stirs the men’s passions, and she calls herself Gladys. Since this British woman is an overwhelming temptation for the sexually starved sailors—and for him as well—Sandercroft would rather shove Gladys straight back over the rail to the fishes, and he knows his loyal Jean is on his side. But the men aboard have already got their eyes on her and, this time, refuse to obey their boss. At the crew’s insistence, Gladys stays aboard, and her fairy-like sex appeal and sparkling charm throw everyone and everything on board into disarray. Sandercroft, too, has to summon all his willpower to resist Gladys’s attempts to seduce him. One day, the young woman disappears, along with Sandercroft’s cash reserve. The American millionaire immediately assumes that the Englishwoman, now suspected of being a confidence trickster, may have made off with it. At the luxury Negresco hotel in Nice, Sandercroft encounters Gladys again. Her mysterious disappearance is now explained: in the dead of night, servant Jean had taken her off the yacht to protect his employer from further temptation. Sandercroft, who has meanwhile fallen in love with the charming Gladys, would love to take her in his arms, but she slips away once again. When the American catches up with the mysterious stranger and embraces her, Jack, who is present, believes he has finally won the bet. The rogue had hired Gladys to seduce his friend Sandercroft. But at that very moment, the five years are up.