Alexandre Chatrian

Hugues le Loup

Gédéon, the Count of Niedeck's gamekeeper, visits Dr. François to invite him to the chateau. He explains that his master has suddenly gone mad during a change of moon. En route, the two men meet a strange old woman who lives in the woods. Gédéon explains to the doctor that whenever this woman prowls around, the Count is plagued by dementia. Once there, the doctor treats the Count and calms him down. The Count has a daughter, Odile, whom he clearly hates. One evening, a mysterious traveler arrives.

The Burgomeister

A burgomeister and family man is haunted by a crime he committed 15 years before: robbing a wealthy Jewish Polish seed merchant to pay off his mortgage debt.

In Old Alsace

The adaptation of a french novel from 1864 describes the idyllic life of a convinced bachelor, Fritz Kobus, in a village in Alsace. With help by the local rabbi, he does get married to young Suzel in the end.

The Bells

Mathias, an Alsatian innkeeper, murders a rich Pole staying at his inn. However, Mathias' conscience will not let him rest, and the murdered man's spirit drives the innkeeper nearly mad. The victim's brother calls for an inquest and brings with him a sideshow hypnotist, who is supposedly able to read minds. Mathias, as burgomaster, is called upon to conduct the inquest, but under the intuitive eye of the hypnotist cannot resist torment of his own conscience.

Polish Jew

The story recounts the murder of an itinerant Jew (Jules Maurice)by the village Burgomaster (Harry Baur.) Years go by and Baur's crime does not weigh heavily on his conscience. But at a banquet one night, the subject of the killing comes up and he faints, and is haunted from that point onward by the vision of the man he killed and the sound of the sleigh bells that first accompanied the victim's arrival in the village. And, to complicate matters for Baur, the son of the victim arrives, and proceeds to fall in love with Baur's daughter.

The Bells

A kindly but desperate Alsatian innkeeper named Mathias murders and robs a rich Jewish merchant staying at his inn, but the ghost of his victim will not let him rest. Meanwhile, a mysterious Mesmerist has come to town, claiming he has made many criminals confess their crimes...

The Bells

A murderer is driven slowly insane by a sequence of coincidences and suggestive events which will not allow him to escape his own sense of guilt for his crime.