The Sword of Valor

Spanish Don Guzman de Ruis y Montejo, living quietly in his Madrid hacienda, determines upon a rich marriage for his daughter, Ynez, rather than letting her be courted by Rodrigo, a Gypsy chieftain. Papa takes his daughter to the Riviera, where Ismid Matrouli, a wealthy Levantine of mongrel origin, asks Ynez's father for her hand. However, at a garden party, Ynez meets an American military attache named Captain Grant Lee Brooke, and the two are love-struck at first sight, especially after he rescues her during a swim in the Mediterranean. Matrouli sics a professional swordsman on the captain, but the American socks him in the jaw. The inevitable duel between Brooke and Matrouili follows, but Roderigo takes a pot shot at the captain and hits the Levantine instead. Roderigo then kidnaps Ynez and carries her away to a mountain stronghold, but the captain follows and rescues her. Her father gives the couple his consent to marry. —AFI