Um ein Haar (1914)

A major landowner gets into a fierce argument with his brother and disappears without a trace. The brother then comes under suspicion of having done away with him and is arrested. A detective is assigned to the case and discovers that the brother’s protestations of innocence are true. The detective sets out to find the missing man and eventually tracks him down. Along the way, the sleuth falls into one trap or another; at one point, he is locked in a room whose floor and ceiling move toward each other hydraulically and can crush anyone trapped between the walls at the end of their movement. But only by a hair’s breadth, as the film’s title suggests, because of course the detective is rescued. Another suspenseful scene takes place in a mysterious mill.