Under the Red Robe

As one might expect from a director famous for his ability to concretise interior struggles on celluloid, this adaptation of Stanley Weyman's costume romance of 17th century France (dealing with Cardinal Richelieu's hounding of the Huguenots) is a swashbuckler more concerned with character than action. Set in a deliciously stylised Sternbergian world - a contrast to the realistic tone of most of Sjöström's films - it follows Conrad Veidt's attempts to square his role as a mercenary with his conscience and his eventual salvation in love. Massey is equally sombre as Richelieu, and the photography by Georges Périnal and James Wong Howe is stunning.