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La belle Russe Synopsis

Geraldine and Beatrice are the twin daughters of Hatherly, a Church of England parson in a small village. Beatrice, the more impulsive and frivolous of the two, elopes to London with a ne'er-do-well. However, when he deserts her, she returns home only to be renounced by her father, who is so scandalized that his health breaks. After his death, Geraldine, the proper daughter, goes to live with an aunt. She meets and weds Philip Calthorpe, but his titled family immediately disinherits him for marrying a girl of genteel poverty; the loss of his allowance forces him to join the army. Meanwhile, Beatrice learns to live by her wits as she travels around European cities. Returning to London, she becomes the hostess at Renard Duval's gambling house and earns the exotic sobriquet "La Belle Russe" ("the beautiful Russian"). She soon runs away to France with wealthy artist Robert St. Omar and gives birth to a daughter, but after a few years, when St. Omar loses everything, Beatrice deserts him and their child and returns to Duval. St. Omar then places their daughter in a French convent, returns to London, and wounds Duval in a duel. Thinking he has killed the gambler, he enlists in the army and is sent off to India. Later, he regains his wealth and becomes engaged to an heiress. However, Beatrice shoots St. Omar just before his wedding, and although he recovers, the heiress wants nothing more to do with him. Meanwhile, Geraldine, forced to go to work, is injured in a fire in a shirtwaist factory and, thinking she may die, entrusts her husband's photograph and letters to her sister. When Lady Calthorpe, now remorseful over the way she treated her son, advertises to find her daughter-in-law, Beatrice assumes her sister's place. Philip Calthorpe, who has been serving in the army in India, returns home and fails to recognize that Beatrice is impersonating his wife. However, St. Omar, who had befriended Philip in the army, unmasks Beatrice, and Philip Calthorpe orders her out of the house. Calthorpe reunites with Geraldine, who has now recovered from her injuries, and St. Omar reclaims his daughter from the convent.

Babette Synopsis

Babette is living with her father, the jailer and hangman in the castle-jail at La Fourche. Raveau, a criminal, comes to the castle and meets her. Her sweetness and purity cause him to realize his form of life is an empty shell. He even restores a necklace purloined from a tourist. Later he and Babette realize their love for each other. Their wedding is celebrated with much pomp. Guinard, a detective, turns up. Realizing his danger, Raveau convinces his wife that their friends are planning to separate them, and gets her to escape with him. They elude Guinard. In Montmartre, Raveau and Babette are like two doves. He again takes up art. But his work is not up to date and he finds the purse growing slimmer. When Babette shyly confesses that there will be another mouth to feed, and that she has given much of their store to Fifine, a "Quarter" girl, whose husband is just coming from prison, Raveau realizes how desperate is his need. He tries once more to sell his wares, without success. An appeal to an old partner brings a turn-down. Raveau then steals banknotes from a man in the post office. Guinard turns up after the baby is born. Without letting Babette know of his crime, Raveau parts from her, saying he has a commission which may take him away for a long time, but in the Commissionaire's office he learns his prosecutor is the husband of a woman to whom he had restored the money won at a gaming salon just before his marriage. The man refuses to recognize Raveau as the thief and he returns to Babette to say he has passed up the commission and will stay with her always, and Babette is happy in her husband's love, ignorant of his sacrifice for her.