In an early scene in
The Chalice of Sorrow, Isabel Clifford
(Blanche White) sits to be painted. Her artist is Marion Leslie
(Charles Cummings); a man commissioned by the Church but distracted by matters of the flesh. Not Isabel’s flesh, mind you; but Lorelei’s—the same Lorelei who wows the corrupt police chief, Sarpina
(Wedgewood Nowell), with her virtuoso vocal performances, night after night. Lorelei
(Cleo Madison) is Mexico’s most celebrated opera diva, Marion’s fiancé, and Sarpina’s passion, yet she boils with petty suspicion over Marion’s friendship with Isabel. Doesn’t she know Isabel’s too wound up in her own brother’s affairs to give damn about anyone else? Rance Clifford
(John McDermott) is an American diplomat who’s run afoul of Sarpina and been jailed. Isabel bribed his jailer and now he’s on the run. That gives sis a lot to think about.
