who is that, this is. hello, hello!. who is that. heinrich? this is kringelein. hello, heinrich. this is otto kringelein. hello! can you hear me?. i've got to speak very quickly. every minute costs two marks ninety. what?. otto kringelein! yes, i'm in berlin, staying at the best hotel, the grand hotel. no, don't you understand? i want to explain, but i must do so quickly, it costs so much. please don't interrupt me -- hello? hello! listen! you know that will i made before my operation? i gave it to you. i want you to tear it up. destroy it. because, listen, i came to berlin to see a great specialist about that old trouble of mine. it's pretty bad, heinrich. the specialist says i can't live much longer. i haven't long to live! that's what's the matter! hello, hello. are you on the line? no, it isn't nice to be told a thing like that. all sorts of things run through your head. i am going to stay here in berlin. i am never coming back to fredersdorf. never! i want to get something out of life, too. you plague, and bother, and save -- and all of a sudden you are dead. heinrich. you don't say anything. i am in the grand hotel, do you understand, the most expensive hotel in berlin? i'm going to get a room here. the very best people stay here. our big boss, preysing, too. i saw him -- not five minutes after i was here. sometime, i'd like to tell him exactly what i think of him. listen, heinrich -- i have taken all my savings; my life insurance, too; i cashed in all my policies, the sick benefit fund, the old age pension, the unemployment insurance, the burial fund and everything. what's that, miss?. hello, heinrich. i have to hang up now. i have to pay three times overcharge. just think, heinrich! there's music here all day long. and in the evening, they go around in full dress. yes, sometimes i have pain, but i can stand it. everything is frightfully expensive here. you can imagine, the grand hotel. what? time's up. i'm a sick man -- heinrich -- hello - hello -- operator -- every minute two marks ninety. i won't wait -- i can't wait -- i waited three days before i got a room at all and what a room that is. did i say i wanted a cheap room to live in -- when i came here did i ask for a cheap room? did i? no, i won't wait -- i can't -- every day is precious -- every hour -- every minute. i came here because i wanted to live here, two weeks, maybe three -- god only knows -- i've told you i'll pay -- i'll pay anything you ask. i'm tired -- i'm ill -- i can't wait. i certainly have a complaint -- and a fair one. i came here from a long distance to stay at the grand hotel. i want a room -- a big room -- like you would give general director preysing -- i'm as good as mr. preysing -- i can pay like mr. preysing -- would you give him a little room, way up in the corner with the hot water pipes going -- bang -- bang -- bang. oh! oh -- but -- i -- yes -- yes -- i am tired. i have been ill. does that mean that the bath is my own? --- private? well, now, that's very kind -- thanks. that's what i want -- a large room on the front with a private bath -- yes, that's what i want. i can pay now if you like. thank you, sir. permit me -- my name is kringelein -- from fredersdorf. oh, a baron! oh -- doctor -- you are a doctor -- i am -- yes -- oh -- oh -- yes, -- is this gentleman a baron, too? again? kringelein is in his door in the distance -- radiant. he waves. if i could trouble the baron to come and see this beautiful room. i have ordered champagne. perhaps the baroness could join us. waiter, oh waiter! wait a minute! we are having caviar -- it's expensive but that makes no difference -- i see the baroness is laughing. oh! you may laugh. caviar and champagne may mean nothing to you, but to me -- they mean a great deal. you see, i'm ill and all of a sudden i got a fear of missing life. i don't want to miss life -- do you understand? yes -- and for me, it's going to leave at any minute. let's drink. i'm sure this beautiful room must appeal to your taste -- distinctive, don't you think? velvet upholstery -- 'a-number one'. i'm in the textile trade and i know. and these are real silk drapes. have you seen the bathroom? -- hot and cold running water -- you see, i can get a bath whenever i like. oh, don't go. oh, can anyone engage you for the evening? general director preysing! baron, when i was sixteen years old, i started as an office boy in that man's factory -- do i know him -- i know him through and through. you will stay, doctor -- if you have nothing better to do? oh, but doctor. isn't this wonderful. to live -- to live -- in the grand hotel. oh, but doctor. the music -- the champagne -- girls when they dance -- all the shining ice in those big silver things -- that's life -- but doctor -- mr. kringelein -- you are drunk -- good night. oh, doctor, such a day -- such a day! baron, we must have gone a hundred miles an hour, at least. we've been together all day. and in an aeroplane. yes, thanks to the baron. the best shops, the very best. look, doctor, silk -- feels so nice on the skin. a london hat, see -- made in england, that's silk, too -- fifty marks. look, the price is on it. that was half my salary before. the baron is a very fine gentleman -- no one in my life has been so nice to me as the baron. in the yellow room, where the music's playing and the ladies are? pain? oh, no, doctor. i think if i had pain i'd be too happy to notice it. for me? -- oh, please, something sweet and cold. a louisiana flip, that sounds very nice -- sweet, eh? -- i'm waiting for him here. the baron and i have been together all day. a hundred miles an hour -- in a motor car -- and in an aeroplane -- it was marvelous -- oh, thank you, miss flaemm. oh, please, miss flaemm -- permit me, miss flaemm, won't you have something sweet -- a louisiana flip. a louisiana flip. yes -- that -- yes -- it's stimulating -- a man might -- i don't know -- i'd like to do anything -- oh -- here you are, baron. a drink -- a louisiana flip? a little strange, baron. a drink, baron -- a louisiana flip? she's beautiful -- isn't she? what, doctor? i had a very good opportunity, a young lady asked me to dance -- i ought to be able to dance, it seems to be very important. haven't you anyone -- haven't you anybody -- you -- i mean -- are you all alone in the world. everything? i wish you a very good evening, mr. preysing. you are staying here, too, mr. preysing? oh -- you must know me -- kringelein at the plant. assistant bookkeeper, building c, room twenty-three -- third floor. i could not think of not accepting. yes. i never danced before -- in public. i'm happy, miss flaemm. for the first time in my life, i'm happy. thank you, miss flaemm. some champagne, miss flaemm? does the world belong to you, mr. preysing? do you think you have free license to be insulting? believe me you have not. you think you're superior, but you're quite an ordinary man. you don't like to see me enjoying myself. an embezzler -- you're going to take that back, right here in the presence of this young lady -- who do you think you're talking to? you think i'm dirt, if i'm dirt, you're a lot dirtier, mr. industrial magnate preysing. me? you can't discharge me -- i'm my own master now -- at last. i'm ill, i'm going to die -- do you understand? i'm going to die very soon. nothing can happen to me now. nobody can do anything any more to me. by the time you can have discharged me i shall have been dead already. the baron is tired? perhaps this evening, baron, we could go to the casino -- the place we passed with the marvelous bright lights? broke -- a baron? but, baron -- was the baron joking, or is it really true that the baron is -- in financial straits. if the baron -- if you would permit me -- i would be awfully glad to oblige, you've been so decent to me. three hundred? gambling! i'd like that. i have over six thousand eight hundred marks with me. we could come to my room. ready, baron. is that too much, baron? all right then. what do i do now? oh yes -- that's right -- look! i win, don't i -- yes -- i'll take everything gentlemen -- please, let us drink -- champagne --- champagne is expensive and good. i'm winning more than i used to earn in a year -- double what i used to earn. where is the baron -- where are you, baron? excuse me, gentlemen. you've lost everything? pardon me, baron. permit me again. i do drink, baron -- i drink to you, baron and to win. it's good, -- come along, baron. all of that at once, baron? i'm having luck for the first time in my life. baron, i drink and win -- i drink and win -- i win and drink! oh, don't go, gentlemen! -- stay a while. be my guests! i oughtn't to presume, but i -- i'm so grateful to you -- it's been so marvelous. the first time in my life i have gambled -- i've danced! oh, you can laugh, gentlemen, but it's the first time in my life i've ever tasted life! life, gentlemen, is wonderful, but very dangerous. you must have courage for it, then it's wonderful. you gentlemen don't know that because you are all healthy and happy, but i -- believe me -- a man must know death and not until then does a man know anything about life. every glass high to life -- the splendid, dangerous, mighty, brief -- brief life -- and the courage to live it. baron, you know -- i've only lived since last night -- but that little while seems longer than all the time before -- all the -- over -- over so soon -- it has just begun. oh, the pain. i'd like to live a little longer but -- i'm not afraid to die -- i'm not. more than fourteen thousand marks. were in that pocketbook. oh, i've got to find it. no -- i must find it -- fourteen thousand two hundred marks. i'm all right, doctor. there's no pain now -- only you don't know what that money means to a man like me. you don't know, because you've never lived like a dog -- in a hole -- and saved and scrimped. my life hangs upon that money, baron. nobody gives you anything. you have to buy everything and pay cash for it. i wanted to pay for my last days with that money. every hour costs money. i've nothing -- nothing but that pocketbook. i must have it back. oh -- yes -- that's it -- you found it -- you found it for me, baron. no -- no please -- oh, don't go -- don't go -- don't leave me alone, baron. no. oh, no, stay here, baron -- stay. oh -- what -- what -- oh -- oh, miss flaemmchen. it's you -- preysing? stay here. mr. preysing -- oh, mr. preysing -- oh -- the baron -- the baron. my best friend -- poor, baron -- dead -- just like that. yes, the police must be called. oh, no -- no -- not the baron. her room -- oh -- i see, mr. preysing -- i understand, mr. general director preysing. yes, i know them -- we must call the police, your excellency. don't worry about me, mr. general director pryesing -- worry about yourself. there has been a murder -- this is room one sixty-four. please, officer. what's the matter? you loved the baron, didn't you? so did i. he was friendly to me as no man ever was. he was in desperate straits. he'd been trying to raise money all day. he laughed -- poor devil! and then a man like preysing kills him. then why did you have anything to do with him? yes, of course, -- money! of course i do -- i never knew what money really meant till i started spending it. do you know -- i can hardly believe that anything so beautiful should come to me from preysing -- i'll take care of you. will -- will you let me? you'll have a good time with me. want to? i've got enough money. ten thousand two hundred in my pocketbook. three thousand four hundred that i won. it will last a long time. i can win more -- we'll travel. wherever you like. here i'll give you the money i won, three thousand four hundred. later you can have more. when i -- i'm ill, flaemmchen -- it will not be long -- i'll not last long. will you stay with me until. do you believe that you will have a better time with me than you would with preysing? do you like me better? when is the next train leaving for paris? -- yes. get two tickets for me. and my bill please. and the lady's -- miss flaemm's. we have to hurry let's pack -- we'll have breakfast on the train. cab please! and now we travel, flaemmchen. glad? is the bill ready -- the lady's too? yes, paris -- grand hotel. oh, there must be one in paris. they have everything in paris.