The Gunmaker of Moscow
Directed by George LesseyWhen Count Valdai died, he left his only daughter Rosalind, in the care of his friend Olga, Duke of Tula. When Rosalind had grown from a beautiful child to a more beautiful young woman, she left the Duke's great estate on the Russian steppes and went with him to Moscow, where her beauty and wealth attracted a great deal of attention from the young noblemen of the Court of Peter the Great. Most prominent among these was the young Count, Conrad Damonoff, for whom Rosalind cared not at all. Her affections were entirely centered on another man: Ruric Nevel, "The Gunmaker of Moscow." Duke Olga's debts were numerous and pressing. Of all possible ways of getting the money to meet them, one seemed to him particularly obvious and practical. He was the nearest relative of the rich young Count Damonoff. If Damonoff were only out of the way, Olga would be rich. So Olga decided that Damonoff must die. She knew that Ruric Nevel was the finest swordsman in Russia. By his machinations, he easily succeeded in forcing a duel between the two suitors. But Ruric only wounded Damonoff, and did not kill him as the Count had hoped, so the Duke sent Savotano, a sinister rascal, to finish Ruric's work with a slow poison. At the same time, he haled Ruric before the Emperor, and demanded his life for having attempted to kill a nobleman. But Peter the Great was curiously friendly to Ruric, and refused to listen to the Duke's demand. Ruric discovered that Savotano was poisoning the Count, and generously took his enemy into his own house to be cared for. The Duke infuriated at Savotano's failure, decided to put another of his schemes in effect. Rosalind was immensely wealthy in her own right, he would force her to marry him, Rosalind learning of the Duke's danger sent word to Ruric by Valdimir, a mysterious monk whom Ruric had once befriended. Ever since Ruric's kind action, the monk had taken a strange interest in his affairs. Now, when the young gunmaker seemed helpless against the power of the Duke, the monk proved an unexpected ally. A file of imperial soldiers, with Ruric and the monk at their head, invaded the Duke's palace and stopped the forced wedding just about to take place. Then the mysterious monk threw off his robe, and disclosed himself as Peter, Czar of all the Russias. He banished the astounded Duke and bestowed on the happy Ruric the title of Duke of Tula and the hand of Rosalind Valdai.
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