Die Geschichte eines Spitzentuches

This movie, directed by Richard Oswald, is based on the operetta "Les contes de Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), which is a genial musical potpourri from various short stories and novels by the Prussian writer, composer, painter, lawyer and judge E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). While Hoffmann's literary work was longtime considered to be merely fantastical, it was finally researched, in the last years, according to its metaphysical background. Characteristic for Hoffmann's work is his life-long fight against rationalism and for the revelation of nature morte, culminating mostly in carnival-like scenes anticipating literary techniques only described in the works of Bachtin and Bachelard.

A tale of cheating in both love and business.

About a gypsy who earns a living as a dancer in cheap barracks. Homeless, her performance is documented by a young and talented but largely unsuccessful composer. Before he dies, he leaves the gypsy dancer his artistic legacy, a previously unpublished composition. A little later, she becomes the wife of the orchestra leader, who completes the unfinished composition and wants to gain the sole glory for it.

Two French spies, Baron d’Aubigny and Clemence de Montignon, blackmail German engineer Günther Ellinghaus with his gambling debts into handing over his construction plans for the new Ikarus engine. He flees to New York and works as a waiter. When World War I breaks, he signs on as a fireman on a Dutch ship and returns to Europe. He becomes a fighter pilot in Germany and faces the former spies as his enemies. After an emergency landing he is taken into their headquarters. He escapes an attempted murder and fights his enemies in an air battle. Both of them survive and after the war Ellinghaus offers them his hand in reconciliation.

German vampire movie from 1920.