Prince Peter Karagin, an officer in the Cossack army, sees and hears lovely Lydia Marakova in the cafe Balalaika in St. Petersburg and wants to meet her. When he hears she likes to fraternize with a lower class of people, he gives a student 50 rubles for his clothing. She eventually accepts his persistant presence and they fall in love. Peter uses his influence to get Lydia an ...
Elmer Tuttle, a plumber in Paris, is enlisted by beautiful Patricia Alden to help her make her lover Tony Lagorce jealous. Tony, however, is two-timing Patricia with Nina Estrados. Elmer, with the help of his friend Julius, hopes to use the high-society contacts he's made with Patricia to find a market for his new invention, a pistol with a range-finding light. But Elmer's atte...
马克斯是一名年轻的机修工，也是一个不思悔改的花心汉，他既勾引已婚的有钱妇女，也不放过孤儿德尼斯。德尼斯的姐姐，特蕾莎，是一个见习修女，为了照顾妹妹，她回到世俗生活中。马克斯这时又想去挑逗特蕾莎……
梅尔维尔拍摄这部情节剧，是为了让法国电影圈重视他在工业体制内创作的能力。尽管这样，这部影片还是显示出了很多导演个人的风格，包括在著名摄影师亨利·阿勒康掌镜下表现出的法国南部的阴暗气氛。
这部影片最大程度的展现了梅尔维尔早年对存在主义哲学的兴趣和好莱坞的类型片风格， 让黑色电影元素注入到情节剧中。影片描述了战后法国社会道德沦丧，人和人之间良知不存，骗子艺术家们，敲诈勒索犯们。影片的道德集中在特雷萨对宗教的信心，和对妹妹的忠实上。但当马克斯进入她的生活的之后，一切都变的不确定起来。（克里斯托弗·韦德曼《电影全感》Senses of cinema，2015）
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