​​​​​​​Susan Evans Grove

Elva La Treue plays Bella, the daughter of a wealthy Italian nobleman who has everything taken away when the Nazi’s invade. Losing her riches and her family do not disturb the young beauty as much as the fact that they used her last pair of silk stockings to tie up her grandmother.

Her willingness to do anything illegal or immoral to get another pair of stockings leads Bella to chase German soldiers 300 miles through the Swiss Alps to retrieve a pair of stockings they are bringing to Eva Braun. Armed only with her conviction of her rights as Italian royalty and Giuseppe, her father’s driver, Bella combats harsh weather and near death in her quest.

Le Treque transcends the moody black and white of the picture with an absolute glow and the chemistry between her and La Rocque who plays Guiseppe is undeniable. It is not surprising since we now know she had just given birth to her only verified child just before filming began.The studio kept the pregnancy, the birth, and the child a secret. Given the control that Mitsumount had over La Treque’s life it is not at all surprising that she returned stateside as single, solitary, and carefree as the tabloid’s depicted her. 

It was not until 18 years later that La Treque was reunited with the child when she discovered that her Italian maid was in fact her long lost daughter. It was never clear if La Treque genuinely had no memory of the child or if she hid the memory behind a wall of blind ambition, only too happy to let the studio make the problematic bundle disappear. 

One can only assume the child was La Rocque’s who had passed away by the time the girl resurfaced. In a cruel twist of fate La Treque and La Rocque were never able to have another child. Rumors of La Treque carrying the Tin Man’s child were greatly exaggerated and it is suspected that the photos of a pregnant La Treque used to spark the rumor were actually taken during the gestation of the child abandoned in Italy.