The story takes place in Milwaukee during the early 1900s with a bank clerk named August Schiller who is happy with both his job and his family. He is tasked with transporting $1,000 in securities to Chicago. On the train he meets a blond seductress who convinces him to buy her a bottle of champagne, and takes him to a saloon. The next morning he awakes alone in a dilapidated bedroom and without the securities.
August Shilling
Mrs. Schilling
August Jr.
The Temptress
The Tough
August, as a child
Evald
Charlotte
Nowadays, it beggars belief that a mere two fragments amounting to less than two minutes of this film survive. Perhaps someone, somewhere, has a dusty film can stored in an out-building on the Paramount lot? As it is, what we still have illustrates a soupçon of the talents of the Oscar winning Jannings and of a violinist he watches from the seats of a theatre in this tale of a man who suffers hard times after falling victim to a gal and a crook depriving him of his job, his family and his dignity. It is a good story, and I really do hope someone turns up a copy one day...