Veneno

A wealthy widow becomes infatuated with an adventurer posing as a poet and, forgetting her responsibilities as a mother and her no longer young age, falls prey to a love frenzy in her family that puts her at odds with her daughter, who has just left boarding school, and her own brother, who is all about scientific research. The girl, who has learned of the alleged poet's less-than-honest intentions, tries every means to drive him away and restore her mother's sentimental balance. For this she pretends to be in love with him who, attracted by her youth and rich dowry, proposes that she elope.

They have been living together for some time in a bohemian environment. The boy is attracted to a friend of his mistress and he frankly acknowledges his feeling. His companion favors meetings and even multiplies them: satiety, habituation, weariness set in very quickly. It is the shrewd mistress who will be married.

ETTORE FIERAMOSCA was based on a widely-read literary action epic by Massimo D'Azeglio, published in 1833. Translated to the screen in 1938 by the most important director of the Italian fascist period, Alessandro Blasetti, it was intended to boost current patriotic fervor and pride in the Italian nation, and it contributed to a revival of Italian nationalism.