Maroussia

This sub strata of the Russian Ex-pat community made movies wherever the opportunity presented. This time they struck out.

As with ANNA KARENINA and QUEEN OF SPADES, the sight of so British actors trying to convince us that they are mad Slavs is off putting. The on-screen world is too good a match for the society dramas and silly ass comedies the English studios rolled out at the time. The leads did better in other films but here the script and studio-bound production give them little to work with and it's hard to develop much sympathy with their sufferings.

The brief cavalry montage and a court room finale, where Francis L. Sullivan of course dominates, manage to catch attention briefly.

This seems almost like Fred Kites idealised idea of Russia.It has to be said that the acting is rather wooden and the story is rather boring. Anna Sten is playing out the fag end of her career.Henry Wilcoxon is stolid and is obviously passing time till the next De Mille epic came along.Korda and Dietrich showed how such a film could be made with Knight Without Armour.