After a six-year hiatus from directing, Sjöström was lured from Sweden to England by Alexander Korda to make this costume drama set in seventeenth-century France. Conrad Veidt plays soldier of fortune Gil de Berault, a.k.a. “The Black Death.” During an uprising by the Huguenots, Berault is sent on a bounty-hunting mission by the ruthless Cardinal Richelieu (Raymond Massey), then falls in love with his quarry's sister (Annabella). Sjöström disliked the script but dutifully completed the assignment, his last behind the camera. This directorial swan song is a fascinating blend of nostalgic silent-film poetics, stilted British studio artifice, and imported international talent: a reluctant Swedish director, an exiled German leading man, a French actress speaking near-phonetic English, and a legendary American cinematographer on temporary leave from Hollywood. In sequences like the tavern duel, James Wong Howe's signature low-key lighting creates some of the most exquisite chiaroscuro shots in the Sjöström canon.