Wilhelm Tell (1923)

Emperor Albrecht uses a heavy hand to suppress the restless provinces in the west of the Habsburg Empire, dispatching three of his trusted men to do so: the prefects Wolfenschiessen, Landenberger, and Gessler. The governors are given unlimited freedom and are to exploit the land and collect high taxes for the good of the Empire. But resistance begins to stir. The wealthy Attinghausen sends his nephew Ulrich von Rudenz to speak with the imperial chancellor, while Heinrich von Melchthal opposes the tax collectors and refuses to pay the extra amount demanded. That same day, the Emperor’s tax enforcers seize Melchthal’s son, Arnold. But Arnold manages to escape, whereupon the ox he leaves behind and the plow it was pulling are confiscated. The excellent archer Wilhelm Tell and his wife Hedwig are initially untouched by these events. Things begin to change dramatically when Prefect Wolfenschiessen stops at Frau Baumgarten’s home and asks for something to drink. Enchanted by her beauty, he makes advances toward her. Her husband, Konrad Baumgarten, appears with an axe in his hand and strikes, like a madman, at the man who tried to rape his wife. News of a colleague’s death reaches Gessler, a staunch defender of imperial claims and rights. Meanwhile, with Tell’s help, Baumgarten escapes the imperial pursuers by crossing the lake in a violent storm. Gessler, for his part, calls on the beautiful Bertha von Bruneck, a widowed lady of noble rank who greatly interests him. Ulrich von Rudenz is a serious rival for the favor of the wealthy heiress. Meanwhile, Governor Landenberger intends to crush the resistance of the Swiss Confederates by any means necessary. Angered by the steadfast Heinrich von Melchthal’s stubbornness, and by the fact that his fugitive son still has not been captured, he decides to make an example of Heinrich. He has the old man blinded and his farm burned down. The Swiss Confederates then begin to close ranks. Heinrich’s neighbor, Gertrud Stauffacher, takes the now-blind Melchthal into her home, where he stays with her and her husband. For this act of Christian charity, imperial soldiers berate her harshly, and one of them kills her in a struggle. When the soldiers leave shortly afterward, her husband, Werner Stauffacher, returns and finds his wife lying dead before him. The leaders of the imperial western provinces now meet and decide on an armed uprising. Meanwhile, Gessler tries to force the people to respect the governors. He has a governor’s hat mounted on a pole and orders every Swiss person henceforth to bow to it and greet it, as though he himself were standing beneath it. When Wilhelm Tell refuses to comply with this demand, Gessler makes Tell’s son Walter go to the pole and places an apple on his head. If the father, Governor Gessler explains, shoots the apple off his boy’s head with his crossbow, Gessler will grant him his life and freedom. The master marksman indeed performs the feat. But when he tells Gessler that he had reserved a second arrow for him, in case he had missed his son, Gessler has Tell arrested and thrown into prison at once. To get ahead with the widow Bruneck, Gessler has his fiercest rival, Ulrich von Rudenz, arrested and thrown into the dungeon with Tell. Gessler makes it clear that Ulrich will languish there until the widow Bertha agrees to marry him. Reluctantly, Bertha von Bruneck agrees in order to secure Ulrich’s freedom. He is indeed released and flees to his uncle Attinghausen’s estate. By Gessler’s order, Tell is to be taken to the Emperor, who will decide what to do with this leader of the rebels. Once again, they travel by boat across the lake, and once again a violent storm blows up, nearly capsizing the vessel. Tell, an experienced boatman, is freed from his bonds so that he can save the little boat from sinking. Once they reach the shore, he manages to escape his guards. Furious, Gessler summons his men to recapture Tell. But Tell has been lying in wait and shoots the governor with the arrow he had once reserved for him during the apple-shot. This is the long-awaited signal for the Swiss to finally free their land from Habsburg rule.