Film d'Arte Italiana

The 1912 Italian version of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

Hand-tinted Italian verison of the Shakespeare Classic King Lear.

Ugo Falena version of William Shakespeare's Othello.

With a friend desperate for money, a merchant takes out a loan from a ruthless money-lender. Confident that his ships will soon be bringing him great wealth, the merchant willingly agrees to conditions of the loan that put him at great personal risk.

He is a brave and gallant young lieutenant of the Italian army at a time when his country is on the eve of war with Turkey. He becomes infatuated with a country girl of intense love nature and splendid womanhood, one lacking knowledge of the world and experience in life. When her feeble insight into character and motive is pitted against his superior intelligence and that long practice in the craft of heartbreaking that enables a handsome gentleman in uniform to practice a form of enchantment with such women, the result is easily foreseen.

A early film adaptation of "The Rape of the Sabines" which is an episode in the legendary history of Rome, traditionally said to have taken place in 750 BC, in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. The English word "rape" is a conventional translation of Latin raptio, which in this context means "abduction" rather than its prevalent modern meaning in English language of sexual violation.

Based on Oscar Wilde's version of the story, what is noteworthy is the sheer luxury of the production, an attempt to capture the wild and weird Aubrey Beardsley illustrations that transfigure the work. The sets are elaborate, with stonework and palm trees and draperies. There seem to be dozens of dress extras, courtiers at Salome's dance and soldiers.