Rio Nobile

Riccardo, a brilliant pianist studying in Rome, falls in love with Germaine, a young and pretty French tourist.

Un grupo de hombres de diferentes circunstancias y personalidades se reúne en un monasterio para seguir un curso de revalorización espiritual. Comprende de un fabricante de velas, un político, un exprisionero, un novelista y un ladronzuelo tratando de eludir a la policía. El político, un ex líder partidista, sufre el remordimiento de haber causado la muerte de tres inocentes. El prisionero, un enfermo y moribundo, posiblemente, carece de valor para visitar a su esposa que puesto que está ahora felizmente casada. El novelista tiene la responsabilidad moral por los delitos cometidos por los jóvenes descarriados por sus escritos, que gana mucho por su trabajo, pero es demasiado desmoralizador para continuar. El fabricante de velas es poco probable que reciba cualquier beneficio de su retiro al monasterio. Entrelazadas con las historias de estos hombres es el drama de un sacerdote que, abrumado por la duda, aún tiene la fuerza interior para seguir adelante.

Después de un fallido ataque a la fortaleza inglesa de Malta, una nueva escuadra italiana lleva a cabo una peligrosa misión en el puerto de Gibraltar, y hunde el acorazado inglés "Valiant" en la bahía de Alejandría.

Italian filmmaker Carmine Gallone was still in his "operetta" mode when he helmed 1938's Il Sogno di Butterfly (Dream of the Butterfly) Maria Cebotari plays opera diva Rosa Belloni, currently starring in a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The plot thickens when Rosa's backstage life begins to mirror the travails of the character she is portraying. The climax comes when Harry Peters (Fosco Giachetti), the American father of Rosa's illegitimate child, returns after four years with his new wife in tow, leading inexorably to a doleful ending both on- and offstage. Critics complained about the substandard photography in Il Sogno di Butterfly, but this might have been due to poor laboratory work.

A romance between two temperamental singing stars. Highlights include a lengthy selection from Faust, with Gigli making a most impressive Mephistopheles. The plot takes a melodramatic turn towards the climax, with the lives of the characters mirrored in their on-stage behavior. Director Carmine Gallone was something of an expert in the field of filmed opera, as witness his Tosca, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore.

In 18th century Europe, King Friedrich II of Prussia leads his army through the seven-years-war with neighboring states, and after numerous near defeats, eventually brings a victorious army back to Berlin.

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.