Angelo, Tyrant of Padua

We see here how Homodu is proposing to the future Mrs. Angelo. The rude way in which he behaves results in a box on the ear, whereafter the lady disappears, leaving Homodu to her father's mockery. She meets her lover, Rudolph, in the garden, and they walk up and down for a while, and then they part, promising fidelity to one another. An old street singer runs up to the young lady and asks for protection against some drunken citizens, who are pursuing her. The young lady hides the old woman between the bushes, throws the pursuers off the scent and thus rescues the old singer, who gratefully accepts, without suspecting, that this very cross is once to rescue her own life. Further into the park the singer meets her daughter, Thisbe, to whom she relates her adventure. On her way to the castle the beautiful young lady passes Angelo, tyrant of Padua, accompanied by Homodu. Angelo falls at once in love with her, and swears that he will possess her. Nevertheless his love does not prevent him from being much taken in with Thisbe, when she and her mother one day are dancing for him at the castle. He persuades Thisbe to stay with him as his sweetheart. His gold tempts her and she stays. But as her master after a while returns with his wife, whom he has only been able to win because he was the master, then Thisbe understands that her best days are over, and with all her heart and mind, and with all the heat of her temper, she bates the rival and she swears to wreak a cruel vengeance upon her. She communicates with Homodu, who is just as bent upon revenge as she is herself. One evening, when Angelo and his wife have retired, each to their own bedroom, Homodu persuades Mrs. Angelo's lover Rudolph to go and visit her in her room. Right after Thisbe comes in: she makes Mrs. Angelo understands that she knows Rudolph is in the room, and that she is going to inform Angelo of his wife's infidelity. In the middle of her triumphs Thisbe perceives the cross which her mother once gave to Mrs. Angelo, and at the same moment her hatred changes into gratefulness and pity. Quickly she informs Mrs. Angelo about the danger which threatens her and her lover, and Rudolph hurries away. Just then Angelo rushes in, informed by Angelo about Rudolph's visit. He is in a rage and examines the room closely, yet without finding the lover. Homodu has more luck; he finds Rudolph's hat, which he in the hurry has forgotten, and now Mrs. Angelo's fate is sealed. She is sentenced by her husband to be executed on the next day. "Why wait till to-morrow?" says Thisbe, "let me mix up a poison and make her drink it at once." Thisbe saves in this way the lady's life by exchanging the poison for a harmless opiate, which Mrs. Angelo drinks. She now goes into a death-like sleep, and the supposed dead body is taken to the chapel, accompanied by Thisbe. Now Homodu means to have the first part of his revenge fulfilled. The second part is to inform Rudolph of the death of his sweetheart. The young man is disconsolate. He pulls out his sword, darts into the chapel where Thisbe is keeping watch, and without a word he runs his sword right through her body. Then he draws aside the curtains from Mrs. Angelo's sarcophagus, and kneels down in speechless despair, when suddenly she opens her eyes and sits up. The lovers now rejoice in a heartfelt embrace, but the joy dies away, and their lips get white at the sight of Thisbe's dead body. Trembling with horror, Mrs. Angelo now learns that Rudolph has killed Thisbe, while Rudolph now sees what a terrible deed he has committed. -- The Moving Picture World, April 11, 1908