Yes, the cinematography is quite good and the cast includes some respected actors and its from a Pushkin short story, hopefully the source did a better job of telling the story. It's a good concept, but I wasn't overly impressed with the execution. The film had some annoying plot points that weighed this film down and which may or may not be attributed to the source material.
I didn't like any of the characters the least bit, so I hope I wasn't supposed to. I couldn't begin to feel sorry for young Lizaveta Ivanova being willingly under the thumb of a truly obnoxious rich old crone who had apparently sold not only her soul to the devil, but her personality as well. I can't imagine too many people really missing Old Countess Ranevskaya when she died, she was like the poster child for why some young people neither like nor respect their elders. She was a grumpy unlikable old control freak only slightly less annoying than Tallulah Bankhead's religious freak in Hammer's "Die! Die! My Darling!". Anton Walbrook did a good job of portraying Suvorin, the gambler who doesn't want to actually gamble anything. He's a man who is looking to sell his soul to gain wealth and power, yet by his actions he seems to be lacking one to bargain with.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Here are some stupid plot points that helped kill this film for me: #1- Oh no, she has found the secret staircase behind the bookshelf! Where is the key, I must find it! Big.F-ing.Deal. So there's a secret staircase, with which she could do what escape your royal annoyingness forever by slipping out through the room that you rarely seem to leave? If she could leave by that door she could just as easily walk out the front door and get herself a life of her own. I can't see why the secret room should be such a big deal if it has no treasure hidden within it, which seems to be the case since no one found anything other than a staircase concealed there. It only seems to exist to give Savorin an escape route later in the film. Yes, the look she gives Savorin as he exits the bookcase is a nice shot.
#2- The ending scene of the Faro game created good tension, but ended rather stupidly. The mysteriously changing Faro card: This could be pretty eerie if it made any sense. So we are to assume the old woman did it from beyond her grave? Would the devil she sold her soul to really care to help her shortchange another wishing to sell his soul for the same secret? If I want to watch a movie centering around a deck of playing cards, I think I'll go watch the superior original "Manchurian Candidate" again.
#3- The happy sappy crappy ending with the birds. If Ivanova wanted a real happy ending much earlier, she could have freed herself from the cage she allowed herself to be in.
Somehow this overrated film was nominated for the BAFTA for Best British film the same year that Carol Reed's great "The Third Man" deservedly won it. The only other film also nominated that year that I had heard of was "Kind Hearts and Coronets". "Queen of Spades" was produced by Anatole de Grunwald whom the movie trailer on the DVD tells me also produced other 'great' films which I have not seen and as such I am expected to assume that this film must then be some must-see masterpiece. This wouldn't be the first or the last time that a producer made an acclaimed film and followed it with a mediocre overrated picture.
This pretty costume drama of a film meandered around boring me for a while, then gave me a bad romance between a stupidly smitten girl and conniving man and adds a third to the triangle with a boring character and after the death of an obnoxious old woman concludes with a tense, but ultimately ridiculous card game.
Do you really want good 'slow burn Brit horror'? Watch the 1973 "The Wicker Man" instead.
I didn't like any of the characters the least bit, so I hope I wasn't supposed to. I couldn't begin to feel sorry for young Lizaveta Ivanova being willingly under the thumb of a truly obnoxious rich old crone who had apparently sold not only her soul to the devil, but her personality as well. I can't imagine too many people really missing Old Countess Ranevskaya when she died, she was like the poster child for why some young people neither like nor respect their elders. She was a grumpy unlikable old control freak only slightly less annoying than Tallulah Bankhead's religious freak in Hammer's "Die! Die! My Darling!". Anton Walbrook did a good job of portraying Suvorin, the gambler who doesn't want to actually gamble anything. He's a man who is looking to sell his soul to gain wealth and power, yet by his actions he seems to be lacking one to bargain with.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Here are some stupid plot points that helped kill this film for me: #1- Oh no, she has found the secret staircase behind the bookshelf! Where is the key, I must find it! Big.F-ing.Deal. So there's a secret staircase, with which she could do what escape your royal annoyingness forever by slipping out through the room that you rarely seem to leave? If she could leave by that door she could just as easily walk out the front door and get herself a life of her own. I can't see why the secret room should be such a big deal if it has no treasure hidden within it, which seems to be the case since no one found anything other than a staircase concealed there. It only seems to exist to give Savorin an escape route later in the film. Yes, the look she gives Savorin as he exits the bookcase is a nice shot.
#2- The ending scene of the Faro game created good tension, but ended rather stupidly. The mysteriously changing Faro card: This could be pretty eerie if it made any sense. So we are to assume the old woman did it from beyond her grave? Would the devil she sold her soul to really care to help her shortchange another wishing to sell his soul for the same secret? If I want to watch a movie centering around a deck of playing cards, I think I'll go watch the superior original "Manchurian Candidate" again.
#3- The happy sappy crappy ending with the birds. If Ivanova wanted a real happy ending much earlier, she could have freed herself from the cage she allowed herself to be in.
Somehow this overrated film was nominated for the BAFTA for Best British film the same year that Carol Reed's great "The Third Man" deservedly won it. The only other film also nominated that year that I had heard of was "Kind Hearts and Coronets". "Queen of Spades" was produced by Anatole de Grunwald whom the movie trailer on the DVD tells me also produced other 'great' films which I have not seen and as such I am expected to assume that this film must then be some must-see masterpiece. This wouldn't be the first or the last time that a producer made an acclaimed film and followed it with a mediocre overrated picture.
This pretty costume drama of a film meandered around boring me for a while, then gave me a bad romance between a stupidly smitten girl and conniving man and adds a third to the triangle with a boring character and after the death of an obnoxious old woman concludes with a tense, but ultimately ridiculous card game.
Do you really want good 'slow burn Brit horror'? Watch the 1973 "The Wicker Man" instead.