Romanze in Moll (1943)

Madeleine has taken poison. When her husband, a staid accountant, comes home from a card game in the evening, he initially assumes that she is already asleep. Only after a while does he realize that his wife is dying. He has her taken to the hospital. To pay the medical bills, he gathers up all the valuables he can find and takes them to the pawnshop. Among them is a pearl necklace that he had always thought was a cheap imitation. At the pawnshop, however, he learns that the necklace is genuine. He eventually tracks down the jeweler the necklace came from and discovers how his wife came to possess the pearls: The composer Michael had watched Madeleine admiring a valuable pearl necklace in the jeweler’s shop window, and had immediately fallen in love with her peculiar smile. His encounter with the young woman inspired him to compose the piece “Romanze in Moll” (“Romance in a Minor Key”). In gratitude, he gave her the necklace, and, after hesitating at first, Madeleine became his lover. For months, she led a double life without her husband suspecting a thing. But her relationship with Michael did not remain hidden from those around her for long. By chance, Viktor, her husband’s superior, learned of the affair. Since he desired Madeleine too, he blackmailed and harassed her. In the end, she gave herself to him, saw no other way out, and obtained poison. When Michael learns of the blackmail, he challenges Viktor to a duel and kills him. Michael himself is so badly wounded in the hand during the duel that he will probably never be able to play the piano again. He intends to turn himself in to the police, but first goes to see Madeleine’s husband to confess everything. Shortly afterward, Madeleine’s husband collapses over the portrait of his wife, saying, “It’s over, it’s over; it doesn’t even hurt anymore.” As a final farewell, Michael eventually brings the pearl necklace to Madeleine’s deathbed.