Le supplice des lions

Alberto Capozzi is a journalist investigating banker Egidio Candiani's floating of a company to mine gold in a place called Goldlandia. There are rumors it is a fraud. His newspaper is sending him on an expeditio to the place to look into the manner. Meanwhile, Capozzi and Cristina Ruspoli have fallen in love. She is Candiani's daughter.

As it turns out the only gold in Goldlandia is in the name, and Candiani knows it. He sets his cohort on Capozzi, forcing him into a duel with an expert fencer. But no inkstained wretch is this reporter! He is losing the duel when Miss Ruspoli escapes from her room, rappels down a building, and rides a horse to rescue him. Eventually Capozzi heads off to the mine, where he discovers the truth. He is captured, and threatened with being devoured by famished lions unless he writes his publisher that there is gold.

The Italians were the first film makers regularly to produce decent features; that meant subplots and pacing. Although there are signs of rushing in the story, and the story itself is more melodrama than solid story-telling, this is a very watchable feature than times in at just under an hour. Capozzi was still making movies in 1945, the year of his death at the age of 58.