Hintertreppe was a 1921 silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

. This was the first movie by German director Leopold Jessner

Leopold Jessner

Leopold Jessner was a noted producer and director of German Expressionist theater and cinema. His first film, Hintertreppe , is considered a major turning point which paved the way for the later German Expressionist experiments of German filmmakers F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, and G.W...

, in cooperation with Paul Leni

Paul Leni

Paul Leni born Paul Josef Levi was a German filmmaker and a key figure in German Expressionist filmmaking, making Backstairs and Waxworks in Germany, and The Cat and the Canary , The Chinese Parrot , The Man Who Laughs , and The Last Warning in...

. It tells the story of a postman (Fritz Kortner

Fritz Kortner

Fritz Kortner was an Austrian-born stage and film actor and theatre director.Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916. Also in that year...

) who adores a woman (Henny Porten) in love with another man (William Dieterle

William Dieterle

William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...

), leading the mail deliverer to try to destroy the relationship by murdering the woman's love interest. The film was later criticized for overemphatic acting and contrived poses. Hintertreppe was a precursor of the 1920s German kammerspielfilm style.