Plots(1)

It is easy to understand why Sjöström and his cameraman, Henrik Jaenzon, were so pleased with the photography in this film. The tragic story is depicted in images composed with the utmost care and technical and artistic control. The plot concerns the owner of a castle, who discovers his wife has been unfaithful to him. He murders her and then converts his castle into a monastery so that he may undertake a lifetime of penance. Maids with messages in corridors, handsome knights riding black horses in the middle of the night, lovers at secret assignations, illegitimate children, jealousy, murder, and feminine pulchritude-all the ingredients are present. (official distributor synopsis)

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