“She was alarmed, and at the same time felt the pleasures of alarm.”
What is clearly stated in the literary model, the film may only hint at: Inge suffers under her husband, a successful lawyer who only looks out for his own benefit and career. Because their vacation together falls through, she travels alone to the French coast and falls in love with a young artist with whom she begins an affair. Apparently not unnoticed - because back in Berlin she becomes the victim of blackmail. But who could have an interest in destroying her marriage? Steinhoff's film focuses primarily on the back story and on the question of the value of marital fidelity. Contemporary critics were quite taken with it: "A chamber play reminiscent of the best works of Lubitsch and Cecil de Mille, but by no means a copy, instead revealing director Hans Steinhoff once again as an expert with an idiosyncratic talent." (Kinematograph)
- Florian Widegger / Programme Director, Filmarchiv Austria