The Countess Ysabel is a frivolous aristocrat who toys with men and their feelings in the same way that she played with dolls as a child - a customary habit among the aristocratic frauleins. The terrible thing about Damen Ysabel is that she is an atheist!!! Can you believe that, mein liebers, an atheist Countess in Denmark?!.
The professor Manini's daughter, Inga, loves her cousin Felix but he only has eyes for Ysabel, a fact that doesn't very much please the Baron Sandro Grec, who also has eyes (the aristocrats share some vital organs with the ordinary people, but the difference is that we use monocles) for the Countess Ysabel. The Baron also likes to play cards at the club with the help of a cue man.
While those lovers see each other, there is a preacher in the city, Elias Renato, who is devoted to the homeless people and to spreading the gospel at any occasion. During a rest in the park he will save the life of a poor orphan, Wenka, who wants to commit suicide in the park's lake because all she has in this world is a brutal alcoholic step-father and an alley cat as a friend, but now thanks to Herr Renato's help she also has a preacher in her life.
Felix, Ysabel's unrequited lover, knows that she is engaged to the Baron Grec and made desperate by this information he decides to commit suicide, leaving a note to the Countess (alas, this time the preacher was not around because he was too busy devoting all his time to creating "The Island Of The Homeless," a kind of asylum for poor people on an island not far from the city).
The professor Manini (his poor daughter Inga now alone without her Felix) torments the Countess at her very home telling her that "what a man sows shall he also reap," a very interesting quote considering the fact that the Countess is a woman. Regardless, Damen Ysabel doesn't feel any remorse about Felix' suicide and she continues her atheistic ways as always and goes off to marry the Baron Renato, despite the bad feelings relayed to her by her own mother about him.
During the wedding the cue man is arrested and he tells everything about those cards tricks to the police, who finally discover that the Baron Renato is not a Baron at all but Leon Spontazzi!!! The Countess Ysabel is informed of this terrible news (certainly it is impossible for a Countess to continue a relationship with anyone possessed of such name!) and the no-longer-a-Baron is arrested in the carriage by the police when the couple returned to their palace. So finally the bride finds herself home alone with terrible thoughts, remembering that terribly prophetic quote, "what a man sows shall he also reap." Do you remember Wenka? Well, by now she is at the island of the homeless, nursing people, and because it is a small world she is nursing Ysabel's mother who is seriously ill. Meanwhile, outside the palace Elias Renato is preaching and, thanks to the music accompanying his sermon, Ysabel is moved (if music can tame wild beasts, why not an atheist Danish Countess?). She enjoys the company of the priest while en route to the island but there - Ah, what a wicked soul she is!! - she will try to tempt the vicar with her riches, as did Herr Devil with Herr Jesus von Christ in the desert, but in vain. Ysabel returns to the mainland where she learns that her mother has died. In desperation she does strange things - like preaching!! - at last, the redemption of a sinner!!.
Do you remember Wenka's father? Well, by now he is at the island of the homeless, still a drunkard just as in the good old days when he was with his step-daughter. True to his nature he treats her wickedly and also accidentally sets fire to the whole village. The fire is seen on the mainland and Ysabel sails to the island, but now as a religious Danish Countess, and there she declares her love to Elias Renato and her devotion to the glory of God. After their marriage the happy couple divide the blessed work, the vicar spreading the word of God and Damen Ysabel doing the same but with a guitar, because she knows that if the music could tame a Countess, why could it not do the same with the unwashed hordes?.
Another interesting Nordisk film production starring Asta Nielsen and directed by Herr Holger-Madsen, with remarkable film editing that pleasantly surprised this German Count.
And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must try to redeem himself in case there is a Danish Countess lost in sin at the next soirée who wants to do it.
The professor Manini's daughter, Inga, loves her cousin Felix but he only has eyes for Ysabel, a fact that doesn't very much please the Baron Sandro Grec, who also has eyes (the aristocrats share some vital organs with the ordinary people, but the difference is that we use monocles) for the Countess Ysabel. The Baron also likes to play cards at the club with the help of a cue man.
While those lovers see each other, there is a preacher in the city, Elias Renato, who is devoted to the homeless people and to spreading the gospel at any occasion. During a rest in the park he will save the life of a poor orphan, Wenka, who wants to commit suicide in the park's lake because all she has in this world is a brutal alcoholic step-father and an alley cat as a friend, but now thanks to Herr Renato's help she also has a preacher in her life.
Felix, Ysabel's unrequited lover, knows that she is engaged to the Baron Grec and made desperate by this information he decides to commit suicide, leaving a note to the Countess (alas, this time the preacher was not around because he was too busy devoting all his time to creating "The Island Of The Homeless," a kind of asylum for poor people on an island not far from the city).
The professor Manini (his poor daughter Inga now alone without her Felix) torments the Countess at her very home telling her that "what a man sows shall he also reap," a very interesting quote considering the fact that the Countess is a woman. Regardless, Damen Ysabel doesn't feel any remorse about Felix' suicide and she continues her atheistic ways as always and goes off to marry the Baron Renato, despite the bad feelings relayed to her by her own mother about him.
During the wedding the cue man is arrested and he tells everything about those cards tricks to the police, who finally discover that the Baron Renato is not a Baron at all but Leon Spontazzi!!! The Countess Ysabel is informed of this terrible news (certainly it is impossible for a Countess to continue a relationship with anyone possessed of such name!) and the no-longer-a-Baron is arrested in the carriage by the police when the couple returned to their palace. So finally the bride finds herself home alone with terrible thoughts, remembering that terribly prophetic quote, "what a man sows shall he also reap." Do you remember Wenka? Well, by now she is at the island of the homeless, nursing people, and because it is a small world she is nursing Ysabel's mother who is seriously ill. Meanwhile, outside the palace Elias Renato is preaching and, thanks to the music accompanying his sermon, Ysabel is moved (if music can tame wild beasts, why not an atheist Danish Countess?). She enjoys the company of the priest while en route to the island but there - Ah, what a wicked soul she is!! - she will try to tempt the vicar with her riches, as did Herr Devil with Herr Jesus von Christ in the desert, but in vain. Ysabel returns to the mainland where she learns that her mother has died. In desperation she does strange things - like preaching!! - at last, the redemption of a sinner!!.
Do you remember Wenka's father? Well, by now he is at the island of the homeless, still a drunkard just as in the good old days when he was with his step-daughter. True to his nature he treats her wickedly and also accidentally sets fire to the whole village. The fire is seen on the mainland and Ysabel sails to the island, but now as a religious Danish Countess, and there she declares her love to Elias Renato and her devotion to the glory of God. After their marriage the happy couple divide the blessed work, the vicar spreading the word of God and Damen Ysabel doing the same but with a guitar, because she knows that if the music could tame a Countess, why could it not do the same with the unwashed hordes?.
Another interesting Nordisk film production starring Asta Nielsen and directed by Herr Holger-Madsen, with remarkable film editing that pleasantly surprised this German Count.
And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must try to redeem himself in case there is a Danish Countess lost in sin at the next soirée who wants to do it.