Le batelier de la Volga

"The Volga Boatman" is an interesting film if only for a better idea of the capabilities of William Boyd, an actor known to most only as "Hopalong Cassidy". Boyd, as a DeMille discovery and contract player was in many of DeMille's films for his own studio, after Paramount and before his 3 year stint at M.G.M. DeMille loved Russian affectations at the time, even to wearing Cossack shirts when on his country home called "The Paradise Ranch". The long-standing tradition of eschewing accurate wardrobe in order to appeal to a more contemporary audience is very noticeable in this film. The designer, Adrian, chose (or was directed to choose) decidedly late 1920's fashions for this film. These are not the high waisted hobble skirts of the period, and do not resemble photographs of the women of the Russian royal family whose fashion sense seemed to be closer to the turn of the century rather than 1914-1918. The scenes in which the upper class men and women are pulling the wagons through the mud in their evening clothes reveals the short hemlines and t-strap high heeled shoes so popular in the nineteen-twenties. That the women's clothes are beautiful is beside the point. DeMille was a populist and rather liked being in the forefront of fashion so that the "Volga" wardrobe doesn't contribute to the realism of the film.

William Boyd (as Feodor) is a Volga river boatman "whose broad breast and ringing voice never tired because he dreamed a dream of freedom." Elinor Fair (as Princess Vera) is "in that delightful feminine state of intending to say 'yes' but acting 'no'" to Victor Varconi (as Prince Dimitri Orloff), "an Officer of the Czar's Guard" who is "just a man waiting for a woman's 'yes' or 'no'." Ms. Fair and Mr. Varconi become engaged, but the Princess falls in love with the un-Princely Mr. Boyd. Their entanglements are played out against the Russian Revolution.

Nice looking film by Cecil B. DeMille, J. Peverell Marley, and others. The performances begin well; especially future "Hopalong Cassidy" star Boyd - in his scene meeting Fair and Varconi, Boyd intensely shows anger, lust, and disgust. Unfortunately, the film peaks there. If you make it through the running time, you should watch for the scene when Boyd gives Fair five minutes say her prayers, before he means to kill her - she rips her dress a little to mark her upper chest with an "X" for his targeting convenience! There are some additional titillating strip scenes (which don't titillate, by the way).

"The Volga Boatman" is as slow moving and predictable as its protagonist. Theodore Kosloff, Julia Faye, and Robert Edeson try to liven things up among the Red Russians. White Russian Varconi makes a wise decision at the end. Off-screen, Boyd and Fair would marry; surprisingly, there is noting very extraordinary about their on-screen romance - they look better with Faye and Varconi...

***** The Volga Boatman (1926) Cecil B. DeMille ~ William Boyd, Elinor Fair, Victor Varconi

In his autobiography Cecil B. DeMille said that getting this picture made later would probably have gotten him blacklisted. Of course in saying that DeMille knew his rightwing credentials were impeccable and no chance of that happening. In fact this film about The Russian Revolution is so sanitized that you'll not see mentioned the names of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Kerensky or any of the personalities of that seminal event in history of the 20th century.

Bearing no small resemblance to the later MGM film At The Balalaika, The Volga Boatman stars Elinor Fair as a Russian princess who while out riding with Victor Varconi of her own class gets good and smitten with peasant leader William Boyd who is one of the folks who totes those barges down the Volga River. Varconi takes it upon himself to humiliate Boyd for being uppity, but Boyd becomes a leader of the Revolution and soon the tables are turned.

The problem is that he too is good and smitten with the princess Fair and risks life, limb, and position in the revolution to save her. I doubt Lenin would have approved. So the Russian Revolution in this film is turned into a will love find a way drama. By the way two men in heat over the same woman is running theme in a flock of DeMille films from this one right up to Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments.

The battle scenes are as usual impeccably done as is the DeMille tradition. That makes up for a lot of the hokiness that today's audience would find with The Volga Boatman.

At The Balalaika had Nelson Eddy's singing to do the same.

Even in his early days, DeMille was a technological wizard who applied the credo "more is better" to his movies. In his silent epic, The Volga Boatman, he certainly employed all the cinematic devices available to him to paint a picture of the Bolshevik revolution, not so much on a sweeping political scale, as on a personal level, that of a peasant and a princess.

The imagery in this movie is DeMille at his most visually expressive: the Volga boatmen, the human mules of Russia, in their rags contrasting with the richly dressed aristocrats, particularly Princess Vera whose gowns were designed by Adrian; the clock in the background inexorably ticking away the minutes of Vera's life as she plays the brave aristocrat, defying Feodor, the steely-eyed boatman/Bolshevik leader, not to love her; and the grand ballroom scene where the cream of Russian society dances while Mother Russia convulses in political upheaval.

Imagery conveys meaning in silent movies more so than the dialog, however, the dialog in The Volga Boatman is studded with acerbic lines emphasizing the disparity between classes and adding to the overall atmosphere of cultural inequality. Unfortunately, we only read one of the best lines of dialog ever written. Despite the fact that Bill Boyd's (Feodor's) rich baritone voice was a generous mixture of northern Oklahoma and north Hollywood accents, I enjoy imagining what he could have done with the line: "We've waited 500 years for freedom, you can wait five minutes to die."

As a devoted fan of the movies, particularly movies having some historical content, The Volga Boatman remains a highly appealing and "watchable" film for me because it focuses on timeless human relationships and not the stale political tracts which can be supplanted. In addition, DeMille's technical craftsmanship is most ably demonstrated in the beautiful composition of each scene. Mr. DeMille went on to direct Technicolor extravaganza's but this hand-tinted, silent classic is one that stands out as an example of DeMille at his cinematic best.

DeMille's tendency to overstate is unbridled, making this a little overdrawn even for a silent epic. Every scene is an epic unto itself and staged as such. It unfolds coherently with DeMille's relentlessly chronological epic momentum, but it drags in many places for lack of editing. Boyd is definitely charismatic in the role that launched his career as a silent matinee idol. His blue eyes rivet the camera even in black-and-white. The pure idealism that he brought to bear in over 50 subsequent stints as Hopalong Cassidy radiates from his Wagnerian portrayal of this bolshevik boatman who cannot betray what he knows in his heart--the universal cowboy hero of every Saturday morning in any get-up. The electricity is there between Boyd and his soon-to-be bride in real life, Elinor Fair, as the princess-in-love-with-the-noble-peasant. Julia Faye adds needed sensuous energy with her tawdry portrayal of the Tartar peasant girl (who also lusts after Boyd, of course). All the elements of human emotion against an epic backdrop are here, and DeMille develops them all as thoroughly as the themes in any of Bach's "Two and Three-Part Inventions". Great piano score from the original cue notes, too, b/t/w.