Widowed mother of two Lil Dagover is swept off her feet by charming Karl Schönböck. Whe she takes him home to met her daughters, Sabine Peters and Geraldine Katt, it is fraulein Peters' sixteenth birthday, and she is all aflutter about mother coming home and getting a silk slip. Schönböck offers her a necklace her mother chose, and takes them all to the opera. Fraulein Katt is excited at the thought of having such a nice stepfather, but her sister is aghast at the implications that love is not forever and becomes demanding and even psychotic.
Reinhold Schünzel's movie start out engagingly enough, with Schönböck being very elegant in a German manner, although they are all English in this tale. The two young girls bicker amusingly, and the cast is filled out with a devoted grandmother, a servant, and even a young swain for fraulein Peters in Hans Richter. But as the story darkens, it pretty much treads the edge of bathos, although it never quite falls over into it.
The copy I looked at was not the cleanest print, and Lil Dagover's character is named "Jennifer Lawrence", like the current movie star. This one may go a bit far for the modern audience, but I found it worthwhile.
Reinhold Schünzel's movie start out engagingly enough, with Schönböck being very elegant in a German manner, although they are all English in this tale. The two young girls bicker amusingly, and the cast is filled out with a devoted grandmother, a servant, and even a young swain for fraulein Peters in Hans Richter. But as the story darkens, it pretty much treads the edge of bathos, although it never quite falls over into it.
The copy I looked at was not the cleanest print, and Lil Dagover's character is named "Jennifer Lawrence", like the current movie star. This one may go a bit far for the modern audience, but I found it worthwhile.
