AllMovie

The title and subject matter of L'Esclave Blanche (White Slave) are one in the same. Set in the pre-WWI Ottoman Empire, the film stars Vivian Romance as the newly wed French wife of Ottoman official John Lodge. Subject to the edicts set down by local sultan Marcel Dalio, the fiercely independent Romance finds that, as a woman, she has no legal rights, and must bow to her husband in all decisions -- even unto standing by helplessly as he welcomes his mistress into their household. Thus it is that, though she lives in comfort and luxury, the heroine is little more than a "white slave" in a male-dominated society. How she comes to grips with this realization is the dramatic crux of the film.