Scherben
(Shattered) is considered one of the first great German silent films which cannot be judged from its synopsis alone. Carl Mayer, who has written the scenarios for half a dozen films in this series, again has created a masterwork, a “drama in five days,” which needs only one title, when at the end the gateman says, “Ich bin ein Moerder” (I am a murderer). It is another Kammerspiel-Film, with only four characters, but describing in detail the atmosphere in which this tragedy takes place. Mayer was the first German scenario-writer to take his subject matter from everyday life. It was also Lupu Pick's greatest success among the score of films he directed before his early death in 1931. According to film historian Paul Rotha: “Mayer resisted Kitsch. He concentrated on stories of an honest character. This was a new sociological use of cinema.”