Überflüssige Menschen (1926)

Russia, during the era of tsarist rule. At the center of the story are several members of the lower middle class, with their worries and troubles in a shtetl in the deepest provinces, cut off from the great events of the world. They are down-to-earth craftsmen and service workers: the carpenter Bronsa, who has already begun thinking about the size of the coffin for his deathly ill wife; the coachman Balagula; and the tailor Sigayev. All three men play music in the village chapel in the evenings. They are the sort who indulge in alcohol and rough brawls, crude and at times hardened fellows—or, as the title puts it, “superfluous people.” Sigayev, for example, the bass player in the village orchestra, has been left by his wife. She has run off with a shady magician and illusionist. In his grief and drunkenness, Sigayev then sets fire to his own house and is only just rescued by the coachman Balagula. On his way to an engagement party, Sigayev encounters a young lady while bathing. How could he know that she is none other than the bride-to-be at the very event he is heading to?! In any case, their clothes are stolen, and the young lady ends up hiding in his violin case. By a roundabout and adventurous route, that very violin case—with the very same naked bride in distress, who, to make matters worse, is also the mayor’s daughter!—arrives at her own engagement party. The naked woman promptly climbs out of the instrument case in front of all the party guests. Scandal!! At the same time, the drunken bass player, whose clothes have also been stolen, sleeps off his drunkenness. In this condition, he is mistaken for a drowned man, rescued in a dangerous manner, and in the end he is lucky after all, as his wife returns to his arms, remorseful.