Pro domo (1918)

Count De Grancé and his wife have two degenerate children. For their adolescent daughter there is still some hope, as her main vice appears to be that she devours the novels of Emile Zola. The son leads a dissolute life in gambling dens, where he cheats at cards, and in night-clubs where he associates with disreputable characters and is having an affaire with a dancer. One evening the Count sees his drunken son thrown out of one of his usual haunts. At home in the castle, the son gives his father a revolver and begs the Count to shoot him because he knows that he is a rotter and is unable and unwilling to change his way of life.