Luigi Serventi

Expert mountain-guide Maciste lives in the Dolomites. He dotes on his young nephew Hans, the illegitimate son of his sister, who died of a broken heart for the dishonour of being seduced and abandoned. Maciste’s bitter rival is the sinister Schultz, a smuggler in search of easy money who teams up with two adventurers: Müller and the mysterious Vanna Dardos. Schultz’s plan is to steal the design for a revolutionary aviation project that engineer Riccardo Ewert is finishing in the peace and quiet of his mountain chalet. Thanks to Maciste the plan is thwarted and Müller and Schultz die overwhelmed by an avalanche while escaping through the mountains.

The young Augusto Genina directs this matrimonial comedy with verve, capturing the right tone and rythms. The Count and Countess Valmonte are a likeable and close-knit couple, but he spends too many evenings at his club, at least as far as she is concerned. Is there something behind these absences?

The child of a woman who killed her husband is raised as the daughter of a count without any knowledge of her true origins.

Two of Germany's best and busiest directors collaborated on Berge in Flammen (Mountain in Flames). The storyline should be of interest to pro-ecologists, inasmuch as the directors take to task the warmongers of the world for despoiling the natural beauties of the European mountain ranges with their shell-fire. The final outrage occurs during a battle between the Austrians and the Italians in the Dolomites, culminating with the destruction of an entire mountain (hence the film's title). The harrowing images on screen were complemented perfectly by the musical score of Giuseppe Beece. Also known as The Doomed Batallion, Berge in Flammen was filmed in three different languages -- German, English, French -- for a total cost of $150,000.

On a beach, a painter rescues a young woman whose face reminds him of a woman he once loved.

Filippo Derblay, a young man of humble birth, became, thanks to his job, the owner of the ironworks. He is secretly in love with Clara, the daughter of the Marquis of Beaulieu, who lost all his fortune. Clara is engaged to the Duke of Bligny, a vain cousin of her. After learning of Clara’s financial disgrace, the Duke prefers to engage to Atenaide Moulinet, a social climber and daughter of the industrialist Moulinet, the “King of Cacao”. To get revenge, Clara agrees to marry Filippo Derblay, despite she considers him an upstart and she despises him. But Filippo, who loves her deeply, can’t tolerate to be humiliated, will prove how much her prejudice was wrong and, at the end, he will win her love. Among the most captivating aspects of the film, the intense performance of the great diva Pina Menichelli and the high level of the photography, that captures spaces from life as the remarkable images of the factory and the workers at the machinery.

Dramatization of a chess game, where the characters were dressed like the various pieces and moved on a chessboard floor.