The very sensuous actress Regina Badet portrays Leah, a shill who works for a European casino run by a crook, played in an excellent performance by the actor Guy Favieres. According to the intertitles of the print I viewed, the casino owner's name is Govanni ... aye, that's Govanni, not Giovanni. Shows you how crooked he is.
Leah's job is to attract the attention of well-heeled men (easy enough, with her looks) and lure them to Govanni's casino, where the crooked croupiers will do the rest. In other words, Leah hooks the fish, and the croupiers clean the fish. The scam requires Leah to spend lots of time outside the casino, so that she can find men and lure them INTO the place. Fortunately, this situation gives us some beautiful exterior shots of what appears to be a French coastal town.
On one of her (ahem) fishing trips, Leah meets a handsome young novelist cried Reginald Ramsay (actor Paul Guide), who is currently writing a novel titled 'The Lotus of Gold'. Leah discovers that she's genuinely attracted to Ramsay, so she decides not to lure him to the casino after all. Or maybe, once she finds out he's a novelist, she figures he's skint anyway.
All is well for the lovers, until a roue friend of Ramsay's, who has been to the casino, decides that the novelist should learn the truth about her. The roue finds out when Leah will be at the casino, and then he invites Ramsay to accompany him there ... without telling him why.
Leah has just finished cleaning out another sucker. The bankrupt man whips out a pistol (is there no security check at this casino?) and he shoots himself, literally dying at Leah's feet. Ramsay has arrived just in time to witness this. So what does he do? Right, you've guessed it: he goes to Africa. Au revoir, m'sieur.
Awash in sorrow that the man she loved has learnt the truth about her, Leah rushes out into the streets and promptly gets struck by a car. Some sympathetic passers-by decide to take her to ... a hospital? No, that would make sense, so they don't do it. Without bothering to find out if she has any spinal fractures or other serious injuries, they hoy her up and take her to the nearby estate of the Marquess of Carabbas ... I mean the Marquis de Merricourt (played by Jean-Marie de l'Isle).
Well, it turns out that Leah has some Marquis value. The nobleman -- who does indeed exhibit some noble traits -- straight away falls in love with her. While recovering from her injuries, Leah marries the marquis, who has beaucoup moolah. She makes him so happy, he sends for his estranged son, asking him to come home to meet his new step-mum.
SPOILERS COMING. Ooh la la! The son of the marquis turns out to be none other than Reginald Ramsay! A triangle develops; Leah seems to have some genuine affection for her much older husband (as opposed to his money), but it's the younger and handsomer Reginald who truly crepes her suzette. One thing leads to the next, and pretty soon the marquis discovers his wife in bed with his son. Quelle fromage!
So what does Leah do? For the sake of the father's and son's love for each other, she commits suicide.
This silent movie felt like an opera with no music. I didn't much fancy the moralistic ending; it implies that a sensual woman is inherently so immoral that she must die. As portrayed by Regina Badet -- an appealingly subtle actress, as well as a looker -- Leah isn't really evil; she seems to have been coerced by Govanni to begin with, and after she leaves the casino she's genuinely more concerned for the happiness of Reginald and the marquis than for her own happiness. Still, this movie is a lot clumsier than it needs to be, and I'll rate it only 5 out of 10.
Leah's job is to attract the attention of well-heeled men (easy enough, with her looks) and lure them to Govanni's casino, where the crooked croupiers will do the rest. In other words, Leah hooks the fish, and the croupiers clean the fish. The scam requires Leah to spend lots of time outside the casino, so that she can find men and lure them INTO the place. Fortunately, this situation gives us some beautiful exterior shots of what appears to be a French coastal town.
On one of her (ahem) fishing trips, Leah meets a handsome young novelist cried Reginald Ramsay (actor Paul Guide), who is currently writing a novel titled 'The Lotus of Gold'. Leah discovers that she's genuinely attracted to Ramsay, so she decides not to lure him to the casino after all. Or maybe, once she finds out he's a novelist, she figures he's skint anyway.
All is well for the lovers, until a roue friend of Ramsay's, who has been to the casino, decides that the novelist should learn the truth about her. The roue finds out when Leah will be at the casino, and then he invites Ramsay to accompany him there ... without telling him why.
Leah has just finished cleaning out another sucker. The bankrupt man whips out a pistol (is there no security check at this casino?) and he shoots himself, literally dying at Leah's feet. Ramsay has arrived just in time to witness this. So what does he do? Right, you've guessed it: he goes to Africa. Au revoir, m'sieur.
Awash in sorrow that the man she loved has learnt the truth about her, Leah rushes out into the streets and promptly gets struck by a car. Some sympathetic passers-by decide to take her to ... a hospital? No, that would make sense, so they don't do it. Without bothering to find out if she has any spinal fractures or other serious injuries, they hoy her up and take her to the nearby estate of the Marquess of Carabbas ... I mean the Marquis de Merricourt (played by Jean-Marie de l'Isle).
Well, it turns out that Leah has some Marquis value. The nobleman -- who does indeed exhibit some noble traits -- straight away falls in love with her. While recovering from her injuries, Leah marries the marquis, who has beaucoup moolah. She makes him so happy, he sends for his estranged son, asking him to come home to meet his new step-mum.
SPOILERS COMING. Ooh la la! The son of the marquis turns out to be none other than Reginald Ramsay! A triangle develops; Leah seems to have some genuine affection for her much older husband (as opposed to his money), but it's the younger and handsomer Reginald who truly crepes her suzette. One thing leads to the next, and pretty soon the marquis discovers his wife in bed with his son. Quelle fromage!
So what does Leah do? For the sake of the father's and son's love for each other, she commits suicide.
This silent movie felt like an opera with no music. I didn't much fancy the moralistic ending; it implies that a sensual woman is inherently so immoral that she must die. As portrayed by Regina Badet -- an appealingly subtle actress, as well as a looker -- Leah isn't really evil; she seems to have been coerced by Govanni to begin with, and after she leaves the casino she's genuinely more concerned for the happiness of Reginald and the marquis than for her own happiness. Still, this movie is a lot clumsier than it needs to be, and I'll rate it only 5 out of 10.