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This melodrama, an early work from director F.W. Murnau, is thought to have been adapted from a Danish film script. It depicts the tribulations of Dr. Egil Boerne (Olaf Fonns), who deserts his fiancée Helene (Erna Morena) for the cabaret dancer Lily (Gudrun Bruun Steffensen). He goes to live with Lily in a small fishing village, where he operates on a young painter (Conrad Veidt) who is going blind. He saves the painter's vision, but leaves Lily when she confesses that she and the painter are lovers. Years later, Lily returns to Boerne and begs him to operate again, as the painter's eyesight once more is deteriorating. Boerne angrily tells her that he would operate only if she didn't exist. Lily commits suicide, and the painter refuses Boerne's help, saying that, without her, he doesn't wish to see again. Remorseful and despairing, Boerne dies alone in his study. 21/85