The Yellow Ticket

The fact that this was made in 1931 is irrelevant because this is as virtually good as any adventure romance you'd get made now. Set amongst one of the many sorry episodes in Russian history it has a particular resonance today.

This might very well be the best film that beautiful Austrian actress Elissa Landi ever made. Allegedly the granddaughter of the famous celebrity Empress Sissi of Austria, she projects an almost regal purity and restrained emotion which is perfect for the innocent yet cynical role of Marya. One wonders how she felt when the script mentioned that her grandmother's husband, Franz Josef of Austria had just signed that memo to 'start' the First World War?

If there are any Lionel Barrymore fans left - which there should be - this picture is for them. Not sure whether his portrayal of the sinister head of Nikolai II's secret police is that accurate but who cares - he's a fantastic Hollywood villain. Although manically over the top, his less than subtle performance is simply explosive. Like all the best Hollywood villains, he creates the perfect character to instantly hate.

And there's also young Larry! In early thirties movies you often see soon to be 'great' actors struggling to learn the ropes but not with young Mr Olivier. It's not quite his first film and he's not the lead but somehow this guy already seems to be at the top of his game.

This isn't one of those old films which you think could have been better if it was made today - everyone and everything in this is as good as you can imagine. When they put their minds to it, Fox Films really could make something superb. Atmospheric set design and innovative cinematography (James Wong Howe again) make this a proper work of art. But not a stuffy, cold piece you'd find in a museum - this is dynamic, buzzing with life. Raoul Walsh's direction never lets the tension falter, he gives this a break-neck sense of intensity to ensure your interest doesn't wane.

And I didn't even mention the naked ladies!

This must have seemed old fashioned even when it was made. The story had to be a holdover from the silent days.

Poor, virtuous peasant Elissa Landi is persecuted by leering aristocrat Lionel Barrymore in pre-revolutionary Russia. Laurence Olivier, in his only his second U.S. movie, is the Western journalist who offers Landi his love and a chance at escape. Boris Karloff plays a drunken orderly.

Whereas Olivier attempts to bring a light touch to his thankless role, neither Landi nor Barrymore seem to know the meaning of the word 'restraint.'. This has an interesting consequence. Whereas Landi is insufferably hysterical, Barrymore provides the best reason to watch; a portrait of sheer, camp villainy that just keeps getting better and better as the film goes on.

Hard to take seriously. Watch it for Barrymore alone.

Admittedly, my world history knowledge is lacking, so I was at a bit of a disadvantage watching "The Yellow Ticket." It took place in 1913 Russia and Jews were being persecuted by the Russian government. They were not allowed passports to travel unless you were a woman entertaining men.

Marya Kalish (Elissa Landi) had to get what was called a "yellow ticket" in order to travel to see her father in prison. The yellow ticket indicated that she was a prostitute even though she got her ticket by paying for it, not by becoming a prostitute. It was one more method of demeaning Russian Jews.

She was harassed and harangued throughout her movements throughout Russia. She caught the attention of Baron Igor Andreeff (Lionel Barrymore) the architect behind the yellow tickets. He wanted from her exactly what every other man she came across wanted.

She caught a break when she met a British reporter named Julian Rolfe (Laurence Olivier). He gave her a job as a secretary and kept her from having to be in the Russian streets. He only had positive things to write about Russia until Marya told him of the seedier, corrupt, and oppressive side of Russia.

"The Yellow Ticket" was eye opening and somewhat educational. If I had one complaint, it would be the romantic relationship between Marya and Julian.

I don't have a problem with two people falling in love, but I do think it detracted from the heavier message of the movie--that of Russian oppression of Jews. Marya went from a distressed, marginalized, and mistreated woman to a normal girl in love in short order. She was gaily spending her time with Julian helping him write his articles as though she hadn't a care in the world. It was as if the Jewish oppression ceased to exist, or simply wasn't as important. She was so happy in love I didn't even think she was still on Russian soil! I thought for sure that as merrily as she was working that the threat of her being locked up for helping Julian write disparaging articles didn't exist. When I saw that she was still in Russia I couldn't help but think, "How dumb or suicidal are you?" I figured she and Julian were smart enough to throw stones from a safe distance--like England.

TYT certainly had a good premise even if they veered from it with a love story. I guess in the 30's a man couldn't help a woman out of a jam unless he was in love with her.

Free on YouTube.

1931's "The Yellow Ticket" was adapted from a 1914 play set in 1913 Czarist Russia, with second billed Lionel Barrymore replacing younger brother John in the scenery chewing role of Baron Andreeff, persecuting the young Jewish beauty Marya Kalish (Elissa Landi), whose only means of travel is the Baron's dreaded 'yellow ticket,' branding this virginal schoolteacher a prostitute. 24 year old Laurence Olivier, in only his fourth feature (second in Hollywood), plays British newspaperman Julian Rolfe, who has spent two pleasant months in Russia, but now has his eyes opened to the degradations endured by Marya; his subsequent negative articles incur the wrath of the furious Baron. The luminous Elissa Landi would soon star in her best known vehicle, "The Sign of the Cross," and there are tiny parts for native Russians such as Mischa Auer and Michael Mark. Boris Karloff, just two films away from "Frankenstein," remains typecast as a lecherous drunken orderly, whose unwelcome ministrations get him arrested (his best lecherous drunk came 3 months earlier in "Five Star Final"). This was his third film working with Lionel Barrymore, co-starring in the 1926 silent "The Bells," and in 1929 directed by Lionel in "The Unholy Night."

It was probably just fate, but within the space of less than a year--Lionel Barrymore created two very vivid but quite different villains who functioned in pre-revolutionary Czarist Russia. In The Yellow Ticket (TYT) (1931), he plays a corrupt amoral nobleman who is also a powerful law enforcement official. And in Rasputin And The Empress (RATE) (1932), Barrymore assumes the role of Rasputin--the Mad Monk who actually manipulated himself into the Romanoff royal household and ended up becoming a historically significant person operating at the highest level of the Russian government.

TYT is a product of the Fox Studios, and is the lesser known of the two films. Other than featuring a strong menacing role for Barrymore as the personification of pure evil, TYT also starred lovely Elissa Landi as the young Jewish heroine who must assume the disguise of a prostitute to be able to move freely within Russia. TYT also co-stars a young Laurence Olivier in one of his earliest screen roles as an English journalist and Landi's love interest. Directed by Raoul Walsh, this pre-code effort is dominated by Barrymore as the unrelentingly nasty bureaucrat who physically covets Landi and is in a position to actually realize what he covets.

RATE was made at MGM in 1932, and directed by Richard Boleslawski. As is well known, it is the only film that featured the three Barrymores (Lionel, Ethel and John). It was also a pre-code movie, although that fact seems less noticable there than in TYT, with its scenes of partial nudity and blatant sexuality. In RATE, Lionel Barrymore's part is based on a real person. Therefore his many truly negative qualities are suggested by historical evidence, although a number of liberties were taken by MGM in the course of bringing this character to the screen.

How did it happen that Lionel Barrymore played these two dislikable Czarist-era Russian villains almost back to back? It really does seem to be mere coincidence--but it is nonetheless remarkable. While the Rasputin part is much better known and far more flamboyant, his unscrupulous Count In TYT has greater complexity and is more subtle. When Barrymore is stalking Landi almost like a feline predator in search of its prey, it is impossible not to be caught up in the terror inherent in this situation. Interestingly, when TYT earlier appeared as a play, the Count character was then portrayed on the stage by John Barrymore!

Neither of these two films would qualify as a true classic--although RATE is certainly famous for its Barrymore casting situation.. But given how Lionel Barrymore evolved into an actor playing many more benign characters as he aged in the late 1930s, it is certainly interesting to see him so successfully performing in these two rather repulsive roles at this stage of his career.