Die Puppe (aka The Doll) (1919)

In order to preserve the family line, a wealthy Baron (Max Kronert) insists his nephew (Hermann Thimig) take a wife. Since the nephew isn't fond of women and doesn't want to get married, he goes to a famous dollmaker (Victor Janson) who has created a life like doll (Ossi Oswalda) with mechanisms that imbue her with human qualities. He plans on passing the doll off as his fiancee to his Uncle. But there's something the nephew doesn't know about the "doll". Very loosely based on the short story by E.T.A. Hoffman (the inspiration for Michael Powell's TALES OF HOFFMAN) which also inspired the ballet COPPELIA. This comedic fantasy courtesy of Ernst Lubitsch is a pleasant charmer with some genuine wit (someone literally falls from the sky and quips "It's a good thing I dropped in!"). The look of the film is that of a very stylized fairy tale, even the horses are played by actors dressed in a horse costume. Oswalda makes for an adorable doll but the real scene stealer is 15 year old Gerhard Ritterband as the dollmaker's apprentice. With Jacob Tiedtke and Marga Kohler.