Karl Leiter

The farce by French comedian Dandy, filmed in Vienna, refers to the media hype surrounding the Egyptian pharaonic tombs in the early 1920s. However, the elaborate sets and costumes also clearly satirize scenes from Lubitsch's monumental film "Das Weib des Pharao", which ran for weeks in Viennese cinemas in 1922. With the wave of Egyptomania that exploded after December 1922, when the news broke that the unviolated tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen had been discovered, Dandy did not miss the opportunity for parody. The film, directed by Dandy himself, also featured Karl Leiter. The latter, known as "Länglich," was one of the most active Austrian comics in the silent period, and Dandy found in him the ideal support for his only Austrian two-reeler.

Marie, a cashier at the Viennese Grottenbahn (Grave Railway) Zum Walfisch, and Baron Christian von B. fall in love, but the dancer Valette, who always wears a mask over her face, interferes in their relationship. Christian eventually follows Valette to Paris. When he tears the golden mask from her face, he is shocked to discover that Valette is disfigured by an illness. He returns to Vienna to die, but Marie is able to save him at the last moment. In this film, the ride through the Grottenbahn is associated with a journey into the inner self.

In Franz Joseph I's Vienna, Captain Eichfeld publishes a witty satire on imperial Austrian army abuses, using the pseudonym "Spectator." It's popular, but Eichfeld dares not reveal his identity, as he wants the hand of conservative General von Trattenbach's daughter. His race rival blackmails both lovers.

Quirky clerk Gamperl is not at all happy with his new boss, the lawyer Dr. Hartwig. For while Gamperl would love nothing more than to sue everyone in sight for every little thing, Hartwig actually advises a number of potential clients to settle their problems outside of court. This has been the case, too, with chief architect Sterneck, who wants to sue the singer Daniela Dannberg, because her vocal exercises have allegedly been disturbing the peace at his country seat in Fried im Winkel. Gamperl thus decides to take it into his own hands to head off to Fried im Winkel, so as to gather damaging evidence against the singer --- and, in the process, manages to bring the village residents to a state of litigious hysteria. When Hartwig learns of the chaos Gamperl has caused, he immediately departs for the village. Yet while he desperately attempts to put things to right, his wife then starts to think he's having an affair with the singer!