Польша. В 1704 году в занятом саксонцами Кракове введены новые порядки и комендантский час. Но ясный, жизнерадостный город нельзя победить. Всюду звенит музыка, люди танцуют и веселятся, не признавая новый режим.
Среди этого небезопасного веселья встречаются «нищий студент Симон», который на самом деле является герцогом Польши и польская графиня Бронислава. Молодые люди находят свою большую любовь, пройдя через опасности, заговоры и интриги.
This film is a fascinating showcase for Emil Janning's theatrical play. He's a gentle school teacher who believes in his boys and is easily fooled about all things, while the other town officials want him dismissed. Curiously it's very hard to see what the film is exactly aiming for. Disaster strikes and the lax prof proves to be too far removed of the real problems of the world, on the other hand his enemies are shown in the most unsympathetic, satirical way denouncing the militaristic, bourgeois ideology of the Kaiserreich.
One autumn, Edgar, a 12 year old boy, spends a holiday with his mother at a plush hotel in Switzerland. His father, a busy lawyer, remains at the family home in Vienna. When he sees a stylish motorcar pull up at the hotel, Edgar wastes no time befriending its owner, an amiable dandy. The latter pays more attention to the boy’s mother than to the boy himself, and decides to use Edgar to wheedle his way into her affections. When Edgar realises he has been used, he is far from happy...
When Albers takes his drug-addicted opera star sister Gerda to a sanitarium, they both become targets of slimy dope peddler Peter Lorre, who fears that Gerda will blow the whistle on him. Lorre kidnaps the woman, leading Albers on a frantic chase.
