Die Marchesa d’Armiani (1920)

The city’s police chief, Dr. Joachim von Raff, has ordered a raid on an illegal gambling den. The young Assunta’s mother is arrested as well. Assunta begs the powerful official to show mercy and release the elderly woman, but Raff coldly turns her down. Years later, Assunta has become the married Marquesa d’Armiani, the wife of a spy. Still driven by a thirst for revenge, Assunta wants to see von Raff brought low, so she begins an affair with his son, Lothar. She succeeds in making the young man fall in love with her. When Lothar realizes that he is merely a means to an end and that the Marquesa is playing a cruel game with him, he shoots himself with a revolver. By chance, von Raff, who has so far known nothing of Lothar’s relationship with Assunta, orders a search of her house. The two former adversaries meet again, and their feelings for one another begin to soften. But soon the police chief learns that the Marquesa bears much of the blame for his son’s suicide. Von Raff rushes to Assunta and strangles her with his bare hands.