The supremely stylish yet chilling 1949 British adaptation of Aleksandr Pushkin's supernatural tale is not only the best-regarded version of this particular source, but among the finest genre outings to emerge from that country; with this in mind, I do not expect it to be surpassed by any other rendition I may care to check out! The film under review (snippets from which, found on the RusCiCo/Image DVD of another popular Russian horror story i.e. THE VIY {1967}, had first intrigued me some years back!), in fact, is one of two I intend including in the current Halloween challenge – the other, even less well-known, emanating from France in 1965. This Russian production, then, dates from the early days of cinema, so that the camera remains static throughout and the cast tends to gesticulate (apart from being heavily made-up, especially around the eyes, in order for their facial expression to better register on-screen!). Still, the end result is not ineffective for all that – after all, leading man Ivan Mozzhukhin (whom I was familiar with so far via THE LATE MATHIAS PASCAL {1926}) was a genuine star, comparable in his handsome looks and thespian skills to John Barrymore – where a sudden transition, within the same shot, between the past and the present proves its single most creative touch. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the devilish pact sealing the card-playing trick is absent here, relegating the fantasy elements to the Countess' ghostly visitation at the very end!; for the record, director Protazanov would later helm the seminal Sci-Fi epic AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS (1924) – which I do own a copy of but have yet to watch
Review of Queen of Spades
