Nora (1944)

Nora and Robert Helmer are a happy married couple. In the small town of Alsen, the lawyer has built up his own practice, but dreams of one day making it big in the banking business. After an outing during which they are caught by the rising tide, the Helmers arrive home completely drenched. Their family friend, Dr. Rank, is already waiting there with some good news: Robert is to be appointed bank director in the district town of Oldenförde. But suddenly he falls seriously ill. Plagued by severe bouts of fever, he has to stay in bed for a long time. Despite his gradual recovery, he is assured by competent authorities that the danger is far from over. Robert is advised to take a restorative trip to the south without fail. But the Helmers’ finances are rather tight at the moment. Nora remembers that her aristocratic, wealthy father had repeatedly offered to help her financially if she ever found herself short of money. Now the time has come. While Nora travels back to her childhood home, Robert sets off ahead of her, and they arrange to meet in Hamburg the next day. When Nora arrives at her parents’ home, her father is out. His financial manager, Brack, arranges matters so that he gives Nora a promissory note for her father to sign when he is expected back shortly. But her father does not return the next day either, and Nora is running out of time. Her husband is waiting for her in Hamburg. So Nora forges her father’s signature and leaves. She cannot know that her father had died in a hunting accident shortly beforehand. She leaves a written apology for Brack behind. On the restorative trip, Robert makes a full recovery and is eventually able to take up his new position. One day, when financial manager Brack applies to him for a seat on the board, Robert rejects him because of a shady deed in his past. Brack, who covered up Nora’s forgery when she left and has kept the letter of apology she wrote about it safely in his possession, now sees an opportunity to put pressure on Nora so that she will influence her stubborn husband. Nora, who never told her husband that she had forged the signature because she was pressed for time, turns in desperation to their family friend, Dr. Rank. He advises her to confess everything to Robert as soon as possible. But since her husband is a man of firm convictions and rigid principles, and would deeply disapprove of her actions, she decides against it. Instead, she tries to persuade Robert to hire Brack after all. Helmer is very surprised by Nora’s increasing nervousness of late. At an evening party, Brack appears just as suddenly as he is uninvited. To his great surprise, he encounters Robert’s mother, Helene, who was once his lover and whom he had shamefully abandoned. Brack then flees the gathering. Nora now decides to tell Robert the whole truth after all. A serious confrontation follows, in which Robert feels deeply disappointed and Nora deeply hurt. Completely distraught, she goes to Dr. Rank. He has always had more feelings for his best friend’s wife than is wise. He asks her to accompany him on a planned trip around the world. He is seriously ill and probably has only six months left to live. Nora refuses; her feelings for her husband are still too strong. She returns to Alsen, while Robert learns from Rank that Nora’s wrongdoing was always motivated solely by her love for him. Robert goes after Nora and seeks reconciliation, since preserving his marriage matters more to him than anything else. Meanwhile, Helene has visited Brack and successfully appealed to his conscience. Troubled by the old debt he owes her, he abandons his means of pressuring Nora and leaves town.