路易斯(丹尼斯·普莱斯 Dennis Price 饰)的母亲出身高贵的阿斯特内家族,但因和一个意大利歌唱家私奔,至死都受到家族排斥。已经长大成人的路易斯深深牢记贵族亲戚们拒绝母亲葬在家庭墓地的嘴脸,又经历心爱的少女茜贝拉(简·格林伍德 Joan Greenwood 饰)因他贫穷拒绝他的求婚,于是着手展开他的复仇计划。他把有爵位继承权的男性亲属一个个用计谋杀掉,旨在自己可以得到公爵爵位,在杀人变得越来越得心应手后,连老弱妇孺都不肯放过,反正他总能制造各种巧合,从来没有人怀疑到他身上。但在复仇计划执行的同时,他也陷入感情困扰——嫁人后的茜贝拉和他藕断丝连,又有个家族内美丽的遗孀艾迪丝(Valerie Hobson 饰)爱上了他,愿意和他订婚,在路易斯得意洋洋继承爵位和举办婚礼之际,他的罪行似乎也要败露……
Just before Christmas, Lee Leander is caught shoplifting. It is her third offense. She is prosecuted by John Sargent. He postpones the trial because it is hard to get a conviction at Christmas time. But he feels sorry for her and arranges for her bail, and ends up taking her home to his mother for Christmas. Surrounded by a loving family (in stark contrast to Lee's own family background) they fall in love. This creates a new problem: how do they handle the upcoming trial?
Based on an unknown Schönberg opera from 1929, From Today Until Tomorrow explores one night in a not-quite loveless marriage. A husband and wife return from a party where she has flirted with another man, while he has cast an appraising eye toward an attractive, fashionably dressed acquaintance of his wife’s. Though each dreams, briefly, of leaving the marriage for the excitement and mystery of a new lover, in the end they decide stability and comfort are more important than the fleeting thrill of new romance. Directors Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, who previously collaborated on two other films about music (The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, 1968, and Moses and Aaron, 1975), rely on long fixed shots in austere black-and-white so that the focus remains on the musical brilliance of Schönberg’s atonal score, performed here by 70 musicians. That Schönberg would choose such a relatively lighthearted message for his newly discovered musical language remains a mystery, especially since the conclusion reached by the husband and wife—to stick with the tried and true—seems directly at odds with Schönberg’s own philosophy of composing. It is just this juxtaposition, however, coupled with Straub and Huillet’s faithful presentation, that makes the opera a compelling addition to the Schönberg canon—and the film such a challenging and intriguing experience.
描述一名美国士兵夏尔洛在第一次世界大战时,参与壕沟战,在一场进攻德军阵营的作战中,单枪匹马成功的俘虏了13名德兵,又在大战中把德军耍的团团转,在最后的情节,他以技巧性的活捉德军前线司令(此片影射兴登堡将军),使得大战结束,并在字幕上表示“Peace on earth—good will to all mankind. 世界和平—人类将会美好”,就在他成为英雄时被众人喝采下,镜头突然一转,原来是夏尔洛还是新兵的时候,在军帐中做的一个梦罢了…。