Queen Helen of Troy, in response to her husband Menelaus' lack of interest in her, elopes with Paris to Sparta. Menelaus, egged on by his henchman, starts a war with Paris, finally effecting the return of Helen. The time-honored custom demands that he have the pleasure of killing her, but her seductive loveliness restrains him.
Falling in love with the aristocratic Sylvia Robertson (Elizabeth Allen), Max poses as a European prince, enlisting the aid of an amiable Ruritanian monarch (Lawrence Grossmith) who owes him a favor.
London fop Percy Blakeney is also secretly the Scarlet Pimpernel who, in a variety of disguises, makes repeated daring trips to France to save aristocrats from Madame Guillotine. His unknowing wife is also French, and she finds that her brother has been arrested by the Republic to try and get her to find out who "that damned elusive Pimpernel" really is.
Made in Germany, set in France and pitched to attract international markets, this frothy drama features Korda’s first wife María Corda, star of the Austrian silent screen, as Toinette, a shopgirl who rises to success in a fashionable dress salon. Corda’s performance dazzled contemporary audiences. Watch out for Marlene Dietrich in a small part as a French coquette.
One of the first epic films made in Austria, as in some of the similar Cecil B De Mille entries, a fusion of a biblical story with a modern update.
