The Night Angel 1931

In Prague, Countess Von Martini Alison Skipworth’s tavern is overrun by police, and she is arrested for theft. City attorney Rudek Berken [Fredric March] prosecutes her, and she is sentenced to two years in prison, while her beautiful daughter Yula Martini Nancy Carroll is to be sent to a reformatory.

Rudek’s mother intervenes and arranges for Yula to go to a training school for nurses, despite Yula’s resistance. Rudek visits Yula at the hospital and falls in love with her, but she knows their class difference and maintains a distance.

After the Countess is paroled, Yula returns to the tavern, and Rudek seeks her out, despite his father’s warning. > Touch pitch and you will be marked with pitch.

Rudek’s visit to Yula proves his love, but she sends him back to his fiancée, Theresa Masar Phoebe Foster after realizing the impossibility of their union. Biezel Alan Hale, the tavern’s strongman, grows jealous of Rudek’s attention to Yula.

When Rudek comes for another visit, Biezel drugs his drink and places him on a public statue in the middle of the night to ruin his reputation. Yula retrieves Rudek and lets him sleep off the drug in her room. The next morning Rudek prepares to leave but promises to return for him in the afternoon, when he will take her away permanently from the tavern.

Just as he is leaving, Biezel goes up to Yula’s room and warns her that he will kill Rudek. Yula slaps him and he knocks her unconscious. Rudek returns and struggles with Biezel. Yula revives and tries to help, but Biezel pins her as well, and Rudek kills him with a knife.

Rudek is tried for murder, but Yula takes the stand and swears that he killed Biezel in self-defense. Rudek is found innocent, and although Yula leaves so that he can marry his fiancée, Theresa recognizes their true love and gives him up. Yula and Rudek are finally united.