German adaptation of Maurice Leblanc's "Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes" stories. German copyright laws allowed the producers to return "Sholmes" to the proper "Sherlock Holmes" who was portrayed by Viggo Larsen.
In this early version the classic "Hound of the Baskervilles" mystery is not faithfully adapted, Watson's character is absent and there are two Holmes. Holmes' foe is called Stapleton and he menaces Holmes' client Lord Henry and his fiancée, Laura Lyons, masquerading himself as Holmes. Hidden passages, hand bombs and mechanical devices abound, reminding more of a serial than of a Conan Doyle story.
Jean Coletti, a popular police detective, criticized for not using the press to help catch criminals, wages 100.000 marks that he can lose himself in Berlin for forty-eight hours without being caught.
Hanni, the shop girl, comes from a milieu like Zille, from which she is freed, so to speak, by Ferdinand, a wealthy elderly gentleman. The first date turns into a shopping spree, and after the new clothes come a new home. Since we write the year 1913 and at that time the cinema was still chaste, Max Mack saved us the details of the Techtelmechtel. To keep the story going, they both learn the new fashion dance: Tango, which Lieutenant Lulu has tried in vain. A tango competition makes the comedy a mix-up comedy: it wins - who wouldn't have thought it - Hanni as the tango queen.
A young actress wanting to test out a new profession, becomes a baker's apprentice.
A man has an accident while out riding his horse and soon discovers that he now has a split personality, and that his alternate is helping a criminal to rob his house.
The film shows the genesis of the Swiss Tropical Institute under the direction of Rudolf Geigy. From his employees and students he was partly admired, partly feared. His moods and outbursts were legendary. As a wealthy industrialist, he was able to afford virtually everything and generously invested in the establishment of the Tropical Institute, but also made considerable development aid in Africa. A search for traces with contemporary witnesses.
Brief documentation of the preparations for the launch of a reconnaissance balloon, and then the take-off itself. This takes place on a lake in a snowy mountain landscape.
