On the Heights
On the Heights is a 1916 Austrian silent drama film directed by Jacob Fleck and Luise Fleck and starring Liane Haid, Hermann Benke and Wilhelm Klitsch. The film adapts a play of the same name by Ludwig Ganghofer. The film, that is presumed lost, was also co-produced by Luise and Jacob Fleck.
Plot
Gregor Stark is a poor man. In order to significantly improve his living conditions, he kidnaps Helene, a forester's daughter.Gregor gets a position at the Böllmann manufacture and rises in the hierarchy of the company learned a secret about Böllmann that allows him to blackmail his employer. He he forces the manufacturer to give him the hand of his daughter Paula. But the latter is not at all happy with that prospect, because she loves Stephan Günther, her childhood friend.
On the eve of the marriage, Stark wants to free himself from Helene, who has become attached to her kidnapper. During the fierce discussion as a result of the separation sought by Gregor, Helene falls from the balcony into the lake below and drowns. Gregor then falls into madness and smashes a mirror in front of all the guests at his own wedding party, in which he thinks he sees the dead Helene. He then falls down the stairs before he comes to the feet of his bride to lie down dead.
Cast
- Wilhelm Klitsch as Gregor Stark
- Liane Haid as Paula
- Polly Janisch as Helene
- Hermann Benke as Fabrikant Böllmann
- Hubert Marischka
- Walter Huber
- Max Neufeld