The Cossack Whip

Viola Dana is a peasant girl in Russia. Her family is caught, tortured and executed as revolutionaries. Miss Dana escapes, thanks to ballet dancer Richard Tucker, who loves her. She goes to London, where she becomes a dancer, but her heart is still set on revenge.

This is, for the year it was made, an astonishingly and casually fluid and well-told story. Director John H. Collins (Miss Dana's husband) was an enormously talented director. With cameraman John Arnold, he offers moving shots, exciting cross-cutting, dance numbers that are shot for the camera instead of the stage, and even some bondage. All of these, along with excellent acting and an exciting story, overwhelm any small plot holes.

Dana and Collins were such a successful team that they survived the collapse of the Edison company. They moved over to Metro, where Collins directed and Dana appeared in BLUE JEANS, a screen version of the hoary melodrama. Alas, while Miss Dana remained a great favorite through the end of the silent era, Mr. Collins died of the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918. Co-star Tucker had an even longer career. He was the first official member of the Screen Actors Guild and died in 1942.

Report from Cinesation 2006: THE COSSACK WHIP (***) Viola Dana versus the Tsar's secret police, leading up to a climax that prompted inevitable comparisons among this silents-savvy crowd to the legendary Behind the Door. This 1916 melodrama was directed by her husband, John Collins, who died in the influenza epidemic in 1918, and was just far enough ahead of the actual Russian Revolution to treat revolutionaries sympathetically; it sags badly with a soapy middle, when she's torn between revenge and a career in the west as a dancer, but the vividness of the opening scenes (the Cossacks attack her village) and the climax, and Collins' generally lively and inventive staging, make it a strong and memorable film. (Eastman House archivist Ed Stratmann's intro was interesting, talking about how the film was reconstructed from different versions around the world, each containing different censor cuts within a film with, apparently, something to offend everyone.)

This 1916 film set in post-Czarist Russia shows a peaceful village where Viola Dana is a carefree girl who likes to dance. Then the Cossacks sweep through, killing everyone in an attempt to wipe out a political cell.

With the help of a famous ballet dancer (Richard Tucker) Dana gets a job with the company but she never forgets. Eventually she is befriended by a ballet star (Sally Crute) and goes off to London where she becomes a noted dancer, but she never forgets.

Will they find out Dana's real identity? Will they catche her? Will she ever be able to exact her revenge?

These questions are answered in this well-made film, directed by Dana's husband, John H. Collins. Interspersing the political story with dance scenes (the mirror dance is quite good), Collins uses film editing styles he learned from D.W. Griffith to create an exciting story that moves fast.

The ending was quite shocking for 1916 audiences and it still packs a wallop. Collins and Dana were a power couple of the teens, until Collins suddenly died in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.