| Plot Summary |
The film story centers our attention on only one of the cruel episodes in Nero's reign. Such a master fiend as he needed other fiends to assist him in his plots. And so he had a poisoner, so well paid, indeed, that she could afford to live in a palace. Britannicus, the cousin of Nero, with an equal, if not better, right to the throne than he must be put out of the way. Locusta, the master of deadly poisons, insidious, or acting with lightning swiftness, is notified. Fearful of mien we see, this arbiter of life and death in her secret laboratory. She has been commanded by Nero to prepare a poison that will act quickly in dispatching Britannicus to the shades of his fathers. The deadly brew is distilled, and in the seductive form of wine, it is poured into a large earthen flagon entwined with roses. Nero interrupts Locusta in the midst of her infernal labors, and believing neither in himself not anyone else, he must have a test of the potency of the drug. A trusted attendant is used as the vehicle, and the poor fellow is requested by a female slave to drink a toast to his master. She, it must be remembered, is wholly ignorant of the nature of the wine. We see him drink, and just as swiftly do we note the horror on his face and the image of death in his eye as he quaffs the bubbling liquid. And for the first time in the picture do we have an inward view of the diabolic heart of Nero, who turns away with delight from the death throes and congratulates Locusta on the success of her "lightning killer." Immediately Nero dispatches a beautiful slave to Britannicus, bearing a perfumed note and the poisoned flagon of wine, beseeching him to accept both the slave and wine as an offering. But the gods rule all things. As the slave passes through a busy square of the city, she is besieged by a band of revelers. Foremost among them is the beloved son of Locusta, who holds her heart and very life. The slave is jostled and hustled mercilessly by the youth's companions, and when he comes up he seizes the slave bodily and forces her to accompany him to a Roman garden. There, before his friends, who acclaim him as the master spirit of the fete, he drinks a glass of the poisoned wine, despite the entreaties of the slave, who knows its deadly quality and is smitten by the youth's goodliness and brave spirits. Within a second, he falls back on a table and expires, amid the yells and bravos of his companions, who think that he is acting a part, and so will that it commands their applause. But the soul of the young reveler has passes out into the night, and it is not until the slave shows to the bacchanal crowd that he is really dead and that they assume sober faces and send three of their number to notify Locusta of her loss. The scene on Locusta's arrival makes the heart throb painfully. Not until she sees the rose-entwined flagon does she realize the suddenness of her son's death and as she announces to the roysterers that the wine has been drugged with a deadly poison, we behold the awful fear of death, narrowly averted, depleted on every face. And that scene, where Locusta is alone with her dead in the stately palace that has been won by dark and fearful deed. The humanness of the woman comes back; the heart of the mother takes the place of the panther's recklessness of sympathy. As Nero comes in and views the maternal heart throes, we catch another glimpse of his hideous inner life, for he laughs and is caught in it by the mother, and is forced by the sheer domination of mother-love to walk out of the room like a craven.
Written by The Film Index synopsis
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