Clio e Filete (1911) Online

The same qualities that were found in the Itala film "The Fall of Troy" are seen in this magnificent Grecian picture in two reels (2,000 feet) telling the poetic love story of Cleo, the pretty daughter of King Diomedes, and Phyletes, the heroic warrior. The subject is treated in the same grand way. It opens with lavishly staged scenes, showing Grecian home life in pre-Homeric days, with stately ceremonial in court and banquet hall, among the fluted columns of Diomedes' high- uplifted, kingly palace. It also pictures the march of mighty armies, the attack on the walled city, the repulse, the breaking down of the gate at night, the turmoil and confusion of the hand-to-hand conflict in the streets of the city, the escape of the king, the burning and destruction of the palace and the rescue of the girl. The picture opens with a pretty love scene. Cleo appears running away from Phyletes. She is reluctant and at the same time coyly ready to be caressed by the young warrior. Phyletes has succeeded in getting his arm about her when the king enters with his courtiers. The two young people are embarrassed. The king pretends to be for a time, but betroths them then and there. Now the arrival of the barbarian king is pictured. He is greeted ceremoniously and feasted. He sees Cleo and falls in love with her. Because his love is refused by both king and girl and Phyletes, he and his followers stalk out of the palace. The background of the next scene is a deep gorge in the mountains, with a stream pouring through it. The wrathful barbarian, with a never-ending horde of rough Illyrian warriors with swords and spears, are seen hurrying downward through the gorge to attack the city. But they are not to take it by surprise, for now we see on one of the high, rocky meadows above the pass a flock of sheep in charge of a young shepherd. Astonished, this shepherd sees the horde winding through the valley far below and abandoning his flock, he is off at once to warn his countrymen of the peril. It is a market day and the populace are mostly outside the gate buying and selling. He arrives in time and the soldiers close the gate and for a time successfully defend the city against the attack. During the night one gate, not carefully enough guarded, is broken down and the rough northmen drive the Greeks back from street to street and capture the palace. The king, Diomedes, is badly wounded and the loyal Phyletes carries him away to a place of safety in a herder's cabin on the hills above the city. Cleo finds her escape cut off and is captured. The barbarians have both city and palace. Phyletes comes back and finds her in the hands of the black-bearded Illyrian king. He makes his way into the vaults under the palace and sets it on fire. In the confusion he finds the girl and rescues her, knocking the barbarian down with a bronze vase. They might have escaped unseen, but the chieftain revives and with a handful of his followers gives chase. The palace is burning fiercely by this time and as the Illyrians rush across the court in pursuit, the big-girthed columns fall upon them, crushing them. They are hidden by the dust and smoke that rises from the ruins. Cleo and Phyletes find the king on the mountain and looking back see the great city in flames below them. An interesting picture. The former film. "The Fall of Troy," had a glorious epic behind it to give it fame. This picture tells a simpler story. - The Moving Picture World, September 16, 1911