The Broken Jug

A hard day begins for Adam, the village judge. Widow Kull’s jug has been broken, and it was broken by whoever fled headlong in the night from her daughter’s room. As the trial goes on it becomes clear to everyone that the culprit is the judge himself. Adam twists and turns, keeps inventing new explanations and piles one lie on another. He is running a case against himself and there is no way for him to win it. The comedy comes from there: the man who hands out justice trying to clear his own name. Emil Jannings plays the judge, and the same name appears among the directors. The eighty six minute German film by Gustav Ucicky and Emil Jannings was completed in 1937.