Den røde klub (1914)

Prince Stanislaus is engaged to Baroness Sonja. But he learns that, for reasons of state that cannot be ignored, he must marry a princess he does not know. And he obeys. Sonja learns of Stanislaus’s official engagement and impending marriage only from the newspaper. It is Sonja’s resourceful maid, Ziska, who suggests that she take revenge. And, she says, the only people who can do it are “our friends.” The two women leave their residence, bundled up and through a secret exit, and cautiously make their way to the entrance of a house. Some time later, Stanislaus receives a threatening letter from the self-styled “Red Club.” He entrusts the investigation to his aide, Captain Boris, who suspects Sonja. The captain visits her, but a young man—none other than Sonja disguised as a man—claims to be the baroness’s cousin and says that she is abroad. Pretending to take his leave, Boris hides, notices that there are secret passages in the house, then follows Sonja to the entrance that the baroness and Ziska had reached some time earlier, supposedly the Red Club’s headquarters. He manages to break in only with difficulty, and gets trapped in a strange underground chamber. He frees himself by causing a short circuit in the electrical system, which opens a way out for him to escape. This is enough for Boris to pounce on Sonja’s “cousin” the next time he gets the chance and tie him up. It is also enough for the police (and the court), which from then on works with Boris to hunt down the baroness in disguise and the other members of the Red Club. But Sonja gets free, and this is only the first in a series of ordeals involving repeated captures and escapes, usually brought about by explosions of varying magnitude, secret passages, and trapdoors. The final act is an adventurous car chase through the countryside, dotted with railway crossings and various accidents. Along with Sonja, the members of the Red Club take refuge in an isolated farmhouse, which is also an arsenal, apparently belonging to the subversive organization itself. They are pursued, and a shootout ensues among barrels of gunpowder, threatening to blow everything up. But Boris, chivalrously, manages to get Sonja, seriously wounded, out of there before the final explosion destroys the members of the Red Club. Sonja herself, still dressed as a man, will nevertheless die shortly afterward.