Nicolas Koline gets a letter from his old friend, Georg Schnell. Schnell left Holland soon after school, moved to the United States and made a pile. Now he wants Koline to come visit him for a year, and will give him $50,000 when he returns to Holland. Koline's bum brothers-in-law think this is a fine idea, although his wife, Nathalie Lissenko, will miss him. The boys sweeten the pot by taking out a policy if he's drowned at sea. So off Koline goes, misses the boat, gets rolled in a Rotterdam night club, and walks home. He doesn't know that the ship sank with all hands. When he gets home, the boys tell him that they've spent half the insurance money and they'll all wind up in prison unless he hides in the attic. Meanwhile, Schnell and his daughter, Betty Astor, have hit town.
It's a comedy of embarrassment for Koline, and pretty good, although it goes on a bit long at several points; that seems to be a particularly Germanic attitude. I think setting it in the Netherlands is also a choice of national attitudes. Still, Koline is good and the night club scenes are way over the top.
