De heldendaad van Peter Wells

Summary

The King of Bragalia is old, dissolute and degenerate - he feasts whilst his people starve. A revolutionary party has been formed by Abraham Simel, who enlists the support of Captain Faroa, who is in charge of the King's Bodyguard. Faroa is in love with Camille, daughter of Raoul Pablo, chief of the Bragalian police. As warnings have been received that a revolution is being engineered in London, Pablo is sent to make inquiries. Returning from a fancy-dress ball at Covent Garden, Pablo is struck down by Pranco, an officer who, while in league with the revolutionary party, is jealous of the popularity of Faroa and secretly in love with Camille.

The wounded Pablo is found by Peter Wells, clerk to a firm of fruit brokers of Covent Garden market and Bragalia, who helps him home. Unable to travel for some days, Pablo decides to send Peter with a warning to the King. Meanwhile the revolution has broken out, and Peter only gets across the frontier with his letter by using a little stratagem. Gaining admission to the Palace, he witnesses the assassination of the King by Pranco. The revolutionaries decide to fire the convent where Camille has been placed in charge of the Abbess, and Wells, with a priest, goes to rescue Camille. He takes her to a wayside hotel, and there Pranco comes, demanding to know Camille's hiding place. Faroa follows, and a duel between the two ends in Pranco's death. As she believes him to be a revolutionary, Camille will have nothing to do with Faroa.

Later Pablo, who has returned from London, receives a message from Duke Carlos, rightful heir to the throne, commanding him to attend a Court function. There the Duke surprises everyone by disclosing himself as the erstwhile Faroa, who had left the Court because of his contempt for the life led by the King. Pablo consents to the marriage of his daughter, and on the Palace terrace the new King and Queen greet their subjects. In London, Peter Wells, bored with existence, goes into a cinema where he sees the Bragalian Coronation in Pathé's Gazette. Recognizing Camille as the Queen, he cheers uproarously, and is turned out of the cinema.

Information

original title
De heldendaad van Peter Wells
production year
1920
release date
21-01-1921
preview date
24-08-1920
country
Netherlands, United Kingdom
category
Fictional
original distributor
producer
production company

Images

Cast

Actor

Technical notations

original length
1667
sound
Silent
colour
Black & White
format
35mm
acts
5

Resources

G. Donadson, Of Joy and Sorrow. A Filmography of Dutch Silent Fiction, Amsterdam (1997), pp. 201-202

more information

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