Sappho

This melodrama was the last German-made film starring Pola Negri to be released in the United States. By the time it came out, Negri was already at Paramount and creating headlines over her romance with comedian Charles Chaplin. Her first American-made film, Bella Donna, would be out only a few weeks after this picture hit the theaters. The vampy Liane (Negri) has driven Andreas insane — literally — and he is consigned to a sanitarium. His brother Chabot comes to Paris and denounces the wrong woman, but Liane overhears his tirade and, intrigued, decides to make a play for him. He falls for her, and the couple head for a seaside resort; however, they are followed by one of Liane’s ex-lovers, the millionaire Bertink, who tells Chabot that she is the one who ruined his brother. Chabot leaves Liane, but then Andreas escapes from the sanitarium and goes looking for her, and Chabot decides to do the same. They both find her at a carnival ball, where Andreas strangles her to death.