Silent movie adaptation of Lessing's play. Set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin and the (initially anonymous) Templar bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
After the Jewish Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman, the king's minister, Haman plots to have all of the Jewish population of the kingdom killed. Mordecai places his hopes on his young and beautiful ward Esther to save their people by ingratiating herself with the king.
In 1807 Prussia, Napoleon supporter Baron von Schranden forces his maid Regine to lead the French enemy across “Cat’s Bridge”, up behind a corps of Prussian volunteers who the French then decimate. In retaliation for this betrayal, the people of Schranden set the lord’s castle on fire. When...