Amsterdam bij Nacht (1924)

Summary

The film opens with a series of views of Amsterdam. At night, Stien is standing under a lamppost when she is approached by Mooie ("Good-looking") Louis who whispers something. Along comes a tipsy gentleman who follows Stien. Moments later he is lying on the street, with blood flowing from his head. Stien and Louis run from the scene of the crime.

When climbing a fence, Stien falls and breaks her leg. She is taken to hospital and attended to by young doctor Gerard van Maanen. Although he is almost engaged to well-to-do Henriëtte, Gerard falls in love with Stien. She is greatly attracted to him and, upset by the death of the unknown gentleman, determines to change her way of life. On leaving the hospital she promises to visit Gerard that evening. Going home she meets Barend, a seaman who is in love with her, and together they go to a dance-hall. There Barend feels that Stien is no longer interested in him and, blaming Louis, gives him a thrashing.

Stien manages to get away for her meeting with Gerard, whom she tells what she is and that she loathes the life she has been leading. As Gerard embraces her, a friend of his prospective father-in-law sees the couple and understands that Henriëtte has lost Gerard. Stien wants to escape from Louis and, after he beats her, flees to Gerard who has managed to find work for her as a mannequin.

Meanwhile Barend has gone to sea again. Marie, a girl whose love for Barend is unreciprocated, gets engaged to a house-painter who, unknown to her, has a wife and children in Rotterdam. Learning that Marie is pregnant, he promptly deserts her. When Barend comes home to Amsterdam, he takes pity on Marie and wishes to be the father of her baby. Gerard has meanwhile broken off his engagement to Henriëtte.

One evening, while dining with Stien, he remembers that it is exactly a year ago that his brother was murdered. As he relates the circumstances, Stien is horrified when she realizes that he is talking of the crime in which she was involved. She confesses everything. Gerard, disgusted, leaves her. Some months later the marriage of Barend and Marie is being celebrated when a message comes that Stien is dying. When Gerard hears this he goes to Stien to forgive her, but he arrives too late.

Information

original title
Amsterdam bij Nacht
production year
1924
censorship date
21-09-1928
release date
18-04-1924
country
Netherlands
geographical names
category
Fictional
original distributor
production company

Technical notations

original length
1900
censorship length
1900
sound
Silent
colour
Black & White
format
35mm
acts
4

Resources

G. Donaldson, Of Joy and Sorrow. A Filmography of Dutch Silent Fiction, Amsterdam (1997), pp. 240-241

Centrale Commissie voor de Filmkeuring (Nationaal Archief; 3680)

more information

If you are looking for more material from our collection, please contact

Ms. Leenke Ripmeester
sales@eyefilm.nl
phone +31 (0)20 5891 426
mobile +31 (0)6 4118 9635