Lucrecia Borgia

A German director (Richard Oswald) and two German leading men (Conrad Veidt, Paul Wegener) dominate the proceedings in the German-Italian costume melodrama Lucrecia Borgia. Lina Haid plays the title character, who according to the screenplay was not the power-hungry poisoner of history, but instead the innocent victim of her brother Cesare's (Veidt) machinations. The film stirred up a controversy at the time of its release by suggesting that the Pope was in the pocket of the Borgias, looking the other way as the Renaissance family committed its most heinous sins. Filmed in 1922, Lucrecia Borgiadidn't see the light of day in the U.S. until 1928. Its American distributor, appropriately enough, was "Unusual Photoplays."