Blonde French sex symbol Martine Carol is incongruously cast as the title character in Lucrece Borgia. The bloody excesses of the incestuous Borgia family during the Renaissance are given ample screen time, albeit within the bounds of reasonably good taste. Mexico's Pedro Armendariz struts and frets as the cruelly ambitious Cesar Borgia, who forces his sister Lucrece into a marriage of convenience. Depicted with historical accuracy as a relatively innocent victim of circumstance, Lucrece never utilizes poison as a weapon in the course of the film, though she does manage to inflict bodily injury on Cesar when the latter threatens her romance with the handsome Aragon (Massimo Serato). The highlight of Lucrece Borgia was Martine Carol's nude bathing scene, only a portion of which made it to American theatre screens.