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Another of RKO Radio's "leftovers" from its previous existence as FBO Pictures, The Red Sword is set in a backlot Russia. Lecherous Czarist officer Litvoski (Allan Roscoe) really "asks for it" when he blinds elderly innkeeper Fiveless (Charles Darvas) and rapes Catherine (Carmel Myers), the innkeeper's wife. Years later, Fiveless hopes to use the illegitimate children resulting from his wife's despoilment, Paul (William Collier Jr.) and Vera (Marian Nixon), as instruments of revenge against the Litvoski. But the villain is apparently already doomed: Informed by a fortune teller that he will die at the hands of a beautiful woman, Litvoski forgets all about this prediction when he allows a Russian actress (Carmel Myers) who resembles Catherine into his boudoir. Who will be responsible for the villain's ultimate demise: The worldly actress, the innocent Vera, or neither of the above?