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At a masquerade, Gerda (Hilde von Stolz), socialite and wife of
prominent doctor Ludwig Harrandt (Peter Petersen), meets notorious painter
Heideneck (Adolf Wohlbrück), follows him back to his studio, and lets him
paint her nude, wearing nothing but a mask and a chinchilla muff
prominently owned by her friend Anita (Olga Tschechowa), fiancée of
Ludwig's brother Paul (Walter Janssen), who has once had a well-publicized
affair with Heideneck, and to this day feels drawn to him, even though he
has given her the boot long ago. By accident, Heideneck's nude makes it to
the papers the very next day ... Ludwig is quick to recognize the muff
in the picture as Anita's (but fails to recognize the nude as his wife),
so he persuades his brother to defend his honour, believing the nude in
the picture is Anita of course. Paul has a talk with Heideneck, and
Heideneck convinces him it's not Anita in the picture. But for his
brother's sake, Paul insists on Heideneck giving him the name of the
actual lady in the picture. Now Heideneck doesn't want to provoke scandal,
so he makes up a stupid and unlikely name, Leopoldine Dur, and figures
that would settle the whole story once and for all. But then, Ludwig and
Paul find out there is a real Leopoldine Dur (Paula Wessely), who works as
a reader for a countess (Julia Serda) they even know, and who, judging
from her mere appearance, could be the nude in the pic. Heideneck
is quick to realize that by merely making up a name, he might have crushed
the life of a young woman, so he tries his best to keep her out of the
hands of Ludwig - and while doing so, the two fall in love. Eventually
though, Ludwig finds out that it was actually his own wife whom Heideneck
has painted, and he feels pretty crushed, but can't do anything without
provoking a scandal or breaking up with his wife, whom he loves despite
everything. Heideneck and Leopoldine in the meantime plan to marry -
which Anita finds out eventually, so she does everything to convince
Leopoldine she's no more than a pawn in Heideneck's game, and even tries
to compromise her in front of the Countess ... and when that doesn't work,
she shoots and gravely wounds Heideneck. Leopoldine and the Coountess's
gardener (Hans Moser) are the first on the scene and decide to hide the
injured to not provoke a scandal, then get Ludwig to save Heideneck's life
off the record. Ludwig initially will have nothing of it, after all
Heideneck has painted his wife nude, but Leopoldine threatens to cause a
scandal should he forget his Hippocratic oath and not help. As a thank
you, Leopoldine later hands him over the gun Anita has used on Heideneck -
which finally puts everything right again ... An old-fashioned
melodrama that's not at all kitsch-free - and also a very fine film:
Director Willi Forst's direction is as subtle as it is elegant, his
approach is light-footed and he is an expert on when to (and when not to)
inject irony into the proceedings. Now add to this a well-written script
and a competent cast, and you've got yourself a pretty good film.
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