Maciste once again profits from a pause in his work as film actor to right wrongs and punish the wicked, this time in the name of dynastic legitimacy. Otis, prince of the kingdom of Sirdagna, waiting to ascend to the throne, lives incognito in a foreign land; but the wicked regent Stanos is ready to do anything to prevent the enthronement of the legitimate prince. The court is a place of perils and conspiracies; Otis is young and inexperienced: to resolve the situation Maciste, on the advice of his friend Saetta, temporarily takes his place, presenting himself in Sirdagna as the hereditary prince. The people, fascinated by his presence, at once acclaim him as emperor. But Maciste is the “faithful servant” of the true king: with the enemies punished and the perils thwarted, he hands back power to Otis: an explicitly political chapter in the saga of the good giant. In the populism of the temporary emperor – which delights the crowd, scorns institutional bureaucracy, and resolves controversies with physical confrontation and charisma – it is not difficult to recognize the reflection of the political situation of Italy of the period. The restoration has been made from a unique nitrate print with Dutch intertitles; the Italian intertitles have been reconstructed from original production documents.

Claudia Gianetto, Museo del Cinema di Torino

One of the few existing Italian silent film “trailers,” this piece testifies to Bartolomeo Pagano’s popularity.