In a moody, early 20th-century Gothic tale, Professor Jacob ten Brinken, Erich von Stroheim, loses his university teaching post because of an obsession with artificial insemination. He secretly uses the sperm of a male murderer condemned to death by hanging to artificially impregnate a female prostitute, and then raises the child as his own. The result is Alraune, a name that evokes both the mandrake root and a troubling lineage, foreshadowing the peculiar blend of beauty and danger she embodies. The film follows her growth from a peculiar, almost mythic presence into a woman who disrupts the lives of everyone around her.
As a medical student, Frank Braun, Karlheinz Böhm, arrives at the ten Brinken estate seeking a loan. He is drawn to Alraune, now a striking and intelligent young woman, and the pair quickly fall in love. Alraune announces she plans to leave her father to join Frank in Paris, but Ten Brinken warns Frank that she can “lure men to their demise.” Frightened and enthralled, Frank travels to Paris without her, leaving her devastated and angry. Her sense of morality slips, and she begins to operate in a world that seems to reward manipulation and desire rather than conscience.
Back at the estate, Alraune’s charm becomes a weapon she wields to test and torment men who cross her path. She goes horseback riding with Gerald, Harry Meyen, during a rainstorm, enjoys a carriage ride with Mathieu, Hans Cossy, and poses for Ralph as he paints her. When a necklace goes missing, she accuses Mlle. Duvaliere, Denise Vernac, a made-up theft that costs her mentor a job—an accusation that is later unmasked as a calculated move by Doctor Mohn, Harry Halm, who stole the piece to push himself into Alraune’s orbit and to attract her attention.
Months pass and Frank returns from his studies, now ready to begin a life with Alraune. Yet he remains wary of her power. Although she loves him, she discovers that love cannot easily reconcile with the destruction she has caused in others’ lives. Feeling betrayed and increasingly isolated, Alraune pleads for Frank’s help and even sheds real tears, prompting Frank to reevaluate the “unnatural being” he was told to fear. He realizes there may be genuine emotion beneath her carefully crafted facade, and he agrees to rekindle their romance and plan an elopement.
Yet Ten Brinken stands in the way, convinced that Alraune’s very presence will ruin both her life and his. Meanwhile, a dwindling sulfur spring on the land becomes a metaphor for dwindling hope; Dr. Mohn threatens to expose Ten Brinken’s illegal experiments if he does not flee with Alraune and the remaining money from the land deal. Alraune grapples with her own sense of worth and destiny, convinced that she is nothing more than “the bringer of destruction” born of a cruel experiment.
Frank, however, speaks to Alraune of a more nuanced truth: good and evil coexist within every person, regardless of their origins. He urges her to believe that her capacity for love can prevail over the darker impulses she has learned to wield. Together, they return to the estate, where Ten Brinken prepares to stop their plan by any means necessary. He shoots Alraune, uttering, Now the toy is broken—the crime against nature that God didn't want. The act is fatal for Alraune, who dies and dissolves into a mandrake root, the embodiment of her double-edged nature.
In the aftermath, Ten Brinken is arrested for murder and is ultimately hanged for the crime against his own child. The film ends on a haunting note about creation, conscience, and the ambiguous line between science and humanity, leaving the question of whether Alraune’s power was ever truly “evil” or merely a mirror reflecting the fears of those who tried to control her.
Characters and performances color this complex tragedy, with the strong supporting cast shaping the estate’s dynamics and the social tensions that swirl around Alraune’s fate:
- Alraune, the central figure whose beauty and potency provoke desire and danger, Hildegard Knef
- Professor Jacob ten Brinken, her father and the man who created her, Erich von Stroheim
- Frank Braun, the student who loves her but wrestles with what she represents, Karlheinz Böhm
- Mlle. Duvaliere, a teacher acquitted of theft amid the plot’s intrigues, Denise Vernac
- Doctor Mohn, the physician who manipulates events to gain Alraune’s attention, Harry Halm
- Mathieu, the carriage driver whose fate foreshadows the danger surrounding Alraune, Hans Cossy
- Gräfin Wolkonska, a powerful figure at the estate, Trude Hesterberg
- Count Geroldingen, a noble who crosses paths with Alraune, Harry Meyen
- Olga Wolkonska, a member of the household, Julia Koschka
- Lisbeth, a member of the household circle, Gardy Brombacher
This adaptation preserves the original’s psychological intensity and moral questions while presenting them with a more expansive, reader-friendly narrative cadence. The film’s striking imagery, the tension between scientific ambition and ethical restraint, and the ultimate tragedy all cohere to create a meditation on how far love, science, and desire can be pushed before they fracture what remains human.
