Spiel im Morgengrauen (2001)

The film is set in Austria in the final years of the monarchy, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Many long years of peace lie behind the flourishing monarchy. But tensions are growing in society and politics, and signs that the peace is deceptive are becoming more frequent. The signs no one wants to see point to war. The young infantry lieutenant Wilhelm Kasda (Fritz Karl) leads the life of a young officer of his time. That life includes minor, often quite inconsequential affairs, such as one with Steffi (Birgit Minichmayr), a young woman of humble means. After spending a night with her at a hotel, he has no intention of ever seeing her again. He leaves a banknote on her bedside table and disappears. Yet only a few years later, he is on the verge of financial ruin. He gambles away a fortune he does not have in a card game, trying to help his former regimental comrade, First Lieutenant Otto von Bogner. Years earlier, Bogner had been forced to leave the military because of gambling debts. He is now married and works as a cashier in an office, where he has embezzled money. With a company audit approaching, he urgently needs 1,000 crowns. His friend Wilhelm is now his last hope. But Wilhelm himself has little, since his uncle Robert (Peter Matic) no longer supports him financially. As he does every Sunday, Lieutenant Kasda travels to Reichenau to spend the day in more refined company. He sits down at a card table in a café and initially wins quite a sum, then visits an industrialist’s family. After a pleasant afternoon at the Kessner family home, he leaves and returns to the café to gamble. He begins to lose at cards, little by little, and not only loses what he had won earlier but also goes into debt to his opponent, Consul Schnabel (Karlheinz Hackl). By dawn, he owes 11,000 crowns. But his creditor insists on being paid within 24 hours. According to the code of honor of the time, gambling then ceases to be a mere vice—it becomes fraud. His only hope now is his wealthy uncle Robert and Robert’s wife Steffi, his former lover. But Steffi, now a wealthy woman, turns the tables while Lieutenant Wilhelm Kasda is drowning in gambling debts. After much hesitation, she agrees to meet Kasda for dinner, where she will tell him whether she can lend him 11,000 crowns. That evening she comes to the lieutenant’s quarters. She lets him entertain and seduce her, but says not a word about the money. Kasda does not dare ask her, but hopes from her behavior that things will turn out well. She has been favored by fate and now decides the game herself. At dawn, Kasda wakes and sees Steffi about to leave. When he tries to ask about the money, she leaves him 1,000 crowns as payment for the night they spent together. He realizes this is revenge for the night three years earlier. He understands that he had been willing to sell himself. Kasda has his orderly (Florian Teichmeister) deliver the 1,000-crown note to Herr von Bogner, commends him for the services he has rendered, and orders him not to disturb him. A little later, the regimental doctor and von Bogner come to the quarters and tell Kasda’s orderly to open the door. After Kasda fails to open his door despite being asked several times, they break it down and find him dead, lying on a sofa. In despair, he has taken his own life with a shot to the head from his service pistol. At that very moment, his uncle Robert arrives with the money Kasda needed, but he is too late. The closing credits report the outbreak of the First World War.