Alphons Fryland

"The Roman Banquet, the golden glories, the unrivaled luxuries, the wine, the dance, the song, the beautiful women, the sumptuous splendors that taxed a barbaric world for a night of feasting and revel-- Re-created for your entertainment in the most colossal drama produced", reads an ad in the Daily Argus of New York. Unione Cinematografica Italiana's lavish production of the oft-told tale stars Emil Jannings as Nero.

The focus of the story is on the relation between the femme fatale and an escaped prisoner, who manages to save himself from the clutches of the vamp in the very last minute (no spoiler, the end of the film is missing!). A dream reveals to him the real nature of duchess Leda Orlonia/geisha/marchesa Rochefou, and he decides to leave the ‘woman with the many names’ for a kind-hearted and decent American girl.

In a small town, the dancer Inge Maria Torselli is very popular with the theater audience. Her father is a ballet master and trained her. Lieutenant Count von Arenheim falls in love with her. But his childhood friend Harald von Bodenstein is also at her feet. The lieutenant asks the father for his daughter's hand in marriage and in order to be able to get married, he applies for his release from the military. His superiors and his mother have certain prejudices against the dancer for whom the lieutenant wants to sacrifice his career. Meanwhile, his old friend Harald tries to forget his grief that Inge didn't choose him. The lieutenant's mother sets the condition that the dancer gives up the stage forever. (Bundesarchiv)

Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, has three adult children: Juan, who is virtuous and has a sweetheart who is a woman of the people, Lucrezia, who is virtuous and wants to marry Alfonso, and Cesare, who is wicked and lusts after Lucrezia, Juan's girlfriend, and probably others. Cesare has vowed to kill any suitor for Lucrezia's love, and he has three thugs to carry out his wishes. Bodies fall into the Tiber, into the Colosseum (with lions prowling), and onto the Vatican floors.

German made drama was one of several the notorious Mary Nolan, under her given name Imogene Robertson, made during her European exile brought on by innumerable scandals in America.

A young poor girl falls in love with a rich heir.