"After the count Honoré de Balzac Adaptation and direction by Jean Epstein" "Cast:" "Prosper Magnan..." "Léon Mathot The innkeeper's daughter..." "Gina Manèa" "Frédéric Taillefer..." "David Evremont The innkeeper..." "Pierre Hot Father..." "Jacques Christian" "Camera..." "Assistants..." "Sets..." "Exteriors..." "Production and distribution...." "An evening of the year 1825, a banker offers dinner to some intimates, among whom the great merchant Herman, visiting from Paris." "...and Jean Frederik Taillefer, old supplier to the armies of the republic." "Victorine, the niece of Taillefer and André, the son of the banker were engaged since a short time." "Before leaving us, mr." "Herman, great traveller, is going to tell us one of those stories that make you shiver!" "The 20th of October 1799, two young doctors made in small stages their posts in Alsace." "My good sir there isn't even any to sit anymore!" "Gold." "Crime!" "Death." "Red Inn." "End of the 1st part." "One does not turn a christian out on a night like this one!" "The daughter of the innkeeper." "One has to be careful." "I hope that your locks close well." "The hero of my story is called Prosper Magnan." "Do you feel unwell, uncle?" "Not at all..." "I'm listening." "Since there is no other bed free here anymore than ours, you take it sir." "My friend and me will sleep on a matrass on the floor." "I come from Amsterdam I am a diamond merchant..." "Keep these small diamonds without great value as a souvenir of a man to whom you rendered service." "We'll both of us sleep on our fortune:" "You on your diamonds, I on my case." "So what was the companion of Prosper called?" "I don't remember anymore..." "Let's call him Guillaume." "Temptation." "Like in a dream, fascinated by that fortune so close," "Prosper conceived the crime in a way that ensured it impunity." "The moment when he raised his arm to strike, he heard in himself like a voice and conceived the deepest horror for himself." "In his repentence from a desire so bad, he often utters the name of his mother." "In the morning..." "Frédéric had disappeared." "Oh, there, I've found it again!" "He was called Frédéric." "Holy coward!" "You've dishonoured my house, you've ruined me!" "No traveller will want to stop in my sinister inn anymore!" "At least hold yourself together then, you woman!" "And Frédéric?" "At noon, the same day..." "So, confess!" "You've slain the voyager to rob him, and that with the complicity of your comrade who is on the run!" "That night, these people have seen you leave the inn, come and go, in a state of great agitation." "Yes or no, have you left the inn during the night?" "Where did you go out to?" "By the big door." "You have taken a lot of care there!" "The innkeeper has heared nothing!" "Your line of defence is inadmissible!" "You had do better to confess." "And that?" "It was found in your pocket!" "The Dutchman had given me that little diamond as a souvenir." "Certainly he wasn't able to do harm!" "Tell us where you've hidden his coffret, and we will take into account that confession." "The next morning..." "He's told me to give you this." "And he's told it me like this, that you have to be told to make the letter get to its address and to pray for him." "Can I still see him?" "And that's how the daughter of the innkeeper told me that whole sad story." "It's for an innocent who was killed..." "Me, I don't know how to get that letter to his mother." "You, you can more easily." "Promis me you'll do it." "I have never been able to see the mother of Prosper Magnan." "She was dead when I arrived." "Then was he going to marry the niece of a criminal?" "You've gone to the Alsace?" "What do you say there to my uncle!" "Weren't you there in the foodstuff?" "The ring is a bit wide and turns easily." "Aren't you from the family of a certain Frédéric Traillefer whom my parents knew, very young, at Beauvais?" "It's the moment to out yourself sir!" "I won't except money that I'm not sure if it has been honestly earned!" "End."