THE QUEEN OF SPADES (1910)
aka Pikovaya dama
Article 2731 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-28-2008
Posting Date: 2-3-2009
Directed by Pyotr Chardynin
Featuring Paval Biryukov, Aleksandra Goncharova, Antonina Pozharskaya
Country: Russia

A soldier romances the daughter of a countess. However, he has an ulterior motive; he is hoping to wrest from the countess a winning three-card combination that he hopes will make his fortune. When he threatens her with a gun, she dies unexpectedly. However, her ghost appears and…

This is the third version I’ve seen of the Pushkin story, and, for a bare-bones 15 minute treatment of the story, it’s not bad. It manages to distill the story to its essence, though if you’re not familiar with the story, you may be a little confused by what actually happens in the last few minutes. However, having enjoyed the classic 1948 British treatment of the story, I didn’t have a problem. Apparently, quite a few silent treatments were made of the Pushkin story, though very few of them are extant.