He is obsessed and oblivious to the feelings of others and ignorant to the age old adage about being careful about what you wish for. Working from a book he located about people making deals with the Devil, Suvorin worms his way into the affections of the Countess' ward, Lizaveta Ivanova (Mitchell), so as to get close to the aged and fragile Countess and put the squeeze on the old dear. The story is a more than solid source to work from, Walbrook's Tsarist Captain Suvorin aspires to gain wealth by learning Countess Ranevskaya's (Evans) secret to wining at the card game Faro. Armed with only a tiny budget and confined to the stages of Welwyn Studios, the director gave a lesson in classic film making. Dickinson (Gaslight) was only brought in at the last minute, literally days before the picture went into production. However, now widely available on DVD (the Optimum Region 2 issue is a spankingly fine transfer), and with Martin Scorsese lending his weight to the film's greatness, it's hoped that more people will get to see and embrace this masterpiece. It's a film that (thankfully) is hard to pigeon hole, it's very unique, a uniqueness that marks it out as an oddity of sorts, ensuring it has stayed as a cult classic rather than a mainstream one. Haunting, poetic, lyrical, romantic and visually arresting, Thorold Dickinson's take on the Pushkin story is a magnificent picture of many wonders. As a result there arose many superstitions concerning the cards-one of these was the evil influence of THE QVEEN OF SPADES." The dead shall give up their secrets. Faro-a simple card game similar to our snap-was all the fashion, and fortunes were won and lost on the turn of a card. "In 1806 the craze for gambling had spread throughout Russia. Music is scored by Georges Auric and cinematography by Otto Heller. It stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell and Ronald Howard. The Queen of Spades is directed by Thorold Dickinson and adapted to screenplay by Rodney Ackland and Arthur Boys from the story written by Alexander Pushkin. All in all, beautiful and chilling both as an adaptation of a classic and as a film in general, one of the best and maybe most under-appreciated in the genre. Yvonne Mitchell is an affecting Liza and I haven't seen Ronald Howard more endearingly sensitive than here. The acting is spot on, especially from Anton Walbrook, who gives perhaps a career best performance, and a heavily made up(and effectively) Edith Evans- looking deliberately older than her years- who is terrifying and tormented. In particular the card scene, a scene that you'd be hard pressed to find a better one on film. ![]() The story is hugely compelling, yes it is a slow-burner(which is not a hindrance at all, the film was unlikely to be as effective otherwise), but the spooky atmosphere and the high levels of suspense make the film's best scenes chill the blood even now. ![]() While Thorold Dickinson directs with a more than sure hand, there are some imaginative touches and he allows the atmosphere to really speak, a good thing considering that it is a ghost story, and the dialogue is intelligently written and easy to understand while respectful to Pushkin. The score from Georges Auric, who also wrote the score for 1946's La Belle et La Bete (another classic), is haunting without ever being obvious or intrusive(in fact a lot of it is a large part of what makes the atmosphere so effective). The costumes and sets are very handsome and the cinematography is sumptuous while also brilliantly having an ominous effect. ![]() Any other version of Alexander Pushkin's short story classic The Queen of Spades, that isn't one of the brilliant Tchaikovsky opera, has to be really outstanding to beat this film, which is often considered the definitive version.
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