World and Its Woman on AllMovie

While his father (Alec B. Frances) is meeting with an American civil engineer (Edward J. Connelly), little Prince Michael Orbeliana (Francis Marion -- apparently no relation to screenwriter Frances Marion) listens to a fairy tale, read to him by engineer's daughter Marcia Warren (May Giraci). In the fairy tale, the girl gets her prince and lives happily ever after, so Marcia informs Prince Michael that she will marry him when they grow up. But young Michael solemnly informs her that a prince cannot marry an American (this actually was not true in pre-World War I Russia, where the story takes place, but the writers at the Goldwyn Studios needed this ploy to make the story work). Time passes -- 20 years, to be exact -- and the children grow up to be played by Lou Tellegen and Geraldine Farrar (who in real life were a married couple). Prince Michael has married a girl from his own circle, even though he doesn't love her. Marcia, meanwhile, has become a renowned opera singer (which is what Farrar was when she wasn't acting in silent films). The Prince's wife is untrue, and when he meets Marcia once again, they fall in love. The Bolshevist revolution comes along, and Prince Michael's wife is killed. Marcia rescues her prince before he can be executed, and together they leave Russia and head for America.