24 Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau on AllMovie

Also known as 24 Hours in a Woman's Life, this perceptive romantic drama was based on the novel by Stefan Zweig. Henny Porten plays Alice, a widow who undergoes a lifetime worth of emotional turmoil during a weekend vacation in Italy. After getting caught in a rainstorm and boarding the wrong boat, Alice ends up in a casino, where she meets an impoverished young man named Thomas (Walter Rilla). The two spend the night together then promise to meet again in the forest the following day. Upon discovering that Thomas is a military deserter and chronic gambler, Alice pays all of his debts, extracting a promise from him that he'll quit gambling and return home to face up to his responsibilities. Alas, Thomas soon retreats to the gaming tables, whereupon their relationship is permanently and irrevocably severed. The Zweig novel was refilmed in 1953 as Affair in Monte Carlo, then again in 1968 under its original title.