I will confess that until I heard this film being lauded highly in a recent podcast by British film-maker Edwin Wright I had no knowledge at all about it. Moreover, it was fascinating to learn that it had actually disappeared from public view until only ten years or so ago when a print almost miraculously surfaced, making it a lost film saved, a rare beast indeed.
As a movie, it's rather fascinating in its own right. Based on a Pushkin story, it's set in imperial Russia in the early 1800's. Anton Walbrook is a poor captain in the army barred by his lower social class from fully entering into the carousing ways of the officers' club, which involve wine, women and the popular card game of Faro, usually played for high stakes. Careful what you wish for Anton, but when he learns of a sure-fire system to win, involving a wealthy, aged duchess, played by Edith Evans, who mastered the card game but who, legend has it, did so by making a Faustian pact with the devil, he determines to learn her secret so he can take down all his betters at Faro, making his fortune and name in the process. So, he hatches a plan to charm the duchess's lowly young maid, Yvonne Mitchell, into allowing him secret access to the old woman's chamber where he can extort the formula for success at the game.
It's superbly shot with interior and exterior shots successfully transplanting the viewer into a snowy St Petersburg. The acting too by the leads is of a similarly high standard. It's worth noting that this was actually the film debut of Robson and Mitchell, although admittedly both were seasoned theatrical actors. They each transition to celluloid seamlessly without bringing the overacting hamminess you sometimes see by other celebrated stage actors.
As for the film's narrative, I will admit it took me a little while to see exactly where the story was heading, but at about the hour mark, motives emerge more clearly leading to a tense conclusion as Holbrook confronts the old lady at dead of night and then participates in the fateful card game where loser takes all.
That last half hour is where the movie really takes off for me, containing as it does one particular edge-of-the-seat moment which is actually repeated to only slightly lesser effect just before the end as the moral of the story is driven home.
Imaginative, atmospheric and haunting, if initially slow-paced, it's worth hanging on through the sometimes longueurs of the first hour for the emotional pay-off at the end.
As a movie, it's rather fascinating in its own right. Based on a Pushkin story, it's set in imperial Russia in the early 1800's. Anton Walbrook is a poor captain in the army barred by his lower social class from fully entering into the carousing ways of the officers' club, which involve wine, women and the popular card game of Faro, usually played for high stakes. Careful what you wish for Anton, but when he learns of a sure-fire system to win, involving a wealthy, aged duchess, played by Edith Evans, who mastered the card game but who, legend has it, did so by making a Faustian pact with the devil, he determines to learn her secret so he can take down all his betters at Faro, making his fortune and name in the process. So, he hatches a plan to charm the duchess's lowly young maid, Yvonne Mitchell, into allowing him secret access to the old woman's chamber where he can extort the formula for success at the game.
It's superbly shot with interior and exterior shots successfully transplanting the viewer into a snowy St Petersburg. The acting too by the leads is of a similarly high standard. It's worth noting that this was actually the film debut of Robson and Mitchell, although admittedly both were seasoned theatrical actors. They each transition to celluloid seamlessly without bringing the overacting hamminess you sometimes see by other celebrated stage actors.
As for the film's narrative, I will admit it took me a little while to see exactly where the story was heading, but at about the hour mark, motives emerge more clearly leading to a tense conclusion as Holbrook confronts the old lady at dead of night and then participates in the fateful card game where loser takes all.
That last half hour is where the movie really takes off for me, containing as it does one particular edge-of-the-seat moment which is actually repeated to only slightly lesser effect just before the end as the moral of the story is driven home.
Imaginative, atmospheric and haunting, if initially slow-paced, it's worth hanging on through the sometimes longueurs of the first hour for the emotional pay-off at the end.