Summary
Rupp, a former butcher turned meat‑packing magnate, rides the post‑World War I economic tide to opulent wealth, his crass demeanor and limited education starkly contrasting his newfound status. His son Fred, a fervent automobile aficionado, is the sole beacon of tenderness in Rupp’s otherwise brutish world. When widowed Rupp encounters Helen, a destitute former aristocrat pawn‑ing her last heirloom to fund her ailing mother’s treatment, he proposes marriage as a mercenary rescue. Helen, desperate and hopeful, consents, unaware that her former lover Platen, a man whose career Rupp sabotaged to protect a chorus girl from Rupp’s predatory advances, still lingers in the shadows, warning her of Rupp’s ulterior motives. Meanwhile, the slick swindler Graf engineers a near‑bankrupt auto firm, Phoenix, into Rupp’s portfolio, extracting negligible compensation and swearing vengeance. A misinterpreted confrontation sees Fred pleading with Helen to abandon the union and return to Platen; Rupp, misreading his son’s appeal as a challenge to his own desires, banishes Fred. The climax erupts on an automobile race track where Fred, incognito, pilots a rival’s vehicle, while Platen drives for Phoenix. Rupp, having bribed Graf to sabotage his competitor, watches the tumult unfold, the final moments a chaotic blend of speed, betrayal, and familial rupture.
Synopsis
Rupp (Jannings) is a former butcher, made rich in the meat packing industry as a result of the reversal of fortunes brought on by WWI. He is crude, uncouth and uneducated. His son, Fred, is the apple of his father's eye and is an auto enthusiast. The widowed Rupp falls in love with a former aristocrat, Helen, now down on her luck and pawning her last heirloom. He proposes marriage and she accepts in order to save her ailing mother who needs a monetary influx to avoid death. Her former boyfriend, Platen, warns Helen against Rupp's intentions - he and Rupp are enemies, Rupp having caused his being fired for protecting a chorus girl against Rupp's unwanted advances. Meanwhile, Graf, a shyster, arranges purchase of a near bankrupt auto manufacturing firm, Phoenix, to Rupp's great advantage with practically no monetary recognition to Graf, who swears revenge. Rupp comes upon his son begging Helen not to marry his father but to return to Platen. Rupp misinterprets the scene, thinks his son is after his intended, and banishes him. The last twenty minutes involve an auto race and its aftermath. Fred unknown to all becomes the driver of his father's rival auto maker. Platen is driving for Rupp's firm, Phoenix. In order to win, Rupp has bribed Graf to make sure his rival won't.
