Sangue blu

Princess Francesca Bertini has a lovely daughter, but her husband has a mistress, so he divorces her. Signorina Bertini gets custody of the child. She devotes her life to charity, particularly poor children, and performs at a fund raiser for them. Her ex-husband's mistress gets photographs that compromise her with the director of that piece, Angelo Gallina. The child gets taken away. A year later she is living in Monte Carlo with Gabina, who is selling off her jewelry to pay for his gambling. An offer comes in for her to perform on the stage for a lot of money. Aghast, she flees, but Gabina pursues.

This movie was rleased at 55 minutes; the copy I looked at timed in at 66 minutes, and I could not quite make sense of the details of the plot If her husband is cheating on her, why does he divorce her and not marry the mistress? Are the claims against Signorina Bertini false when they are made? If so, when did they become true?

No, it's all an excuse to watch Francesca Bertini suffer. Given that it's 1914, she gives a moody, restrained performance. I can understand her being the leading woman actor in Italy in this period, and her career would persists -- with breaks for beign a married woman -- well into the sound era. Her last screen performance was in 1976. She died in 1985 at the age of 93.