This was the second Hollywood film directed by the great Dane Benjamin Christensen (who made Mysterious X – his astonishing debut - Blind Justice and the uncanny Häxan) and it has to be said that it lacks conceptual weight in comparison to his European output. That’s not only “show-business” it’s also the pressure of a studio system which expected its talent to shine through the constraints of commercial imperatives and the freedoms of a much tighter brief than UFA and Dansk-Biograf Kompagnie would have offered.
The film was panned on release but did reasonable
business not least because of yet another superb performance from Lon Chaney:
even when the plot is so-so, Mr Chaney can move the stoniest of hearts with the
bending of his back, the slump of his shoulders and a mournful flash of his
defeated eyes. His face literally collapses in pain like some great missing
link between thought and expression… there’s never been anyone quite like him.
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| Lon Chaney |
When the film was “lost” it was no doubt much coveted but
its discovery in the seventies shouldn’t leave us disappointed entirely. The story
is “light” for sure but I think the New
York Times was a tad harsh in describing it as “…lumbering,
dull-witted and, on the whole, unconvincing...” nor was Moving
Picture World entirely fair in describing Lon as being
“…hopelessly encumbered by the amateurishness of the plot development and
handling."
Then as now, audiences voted with their feet and this one
may have edged a 7 on IMDB had the primitive telephony of the twenties been
able to access the internet.
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| Barbara Bedford and Lon Chaney |
Star power and backlash… plus ca change. It’s still
interesting none-the-less to see an American film dealing with the Bolshevik
Revolution ten years down the line and bringing out characters on both sides:
aristo’s who are good and selfish, insurgents who are the same and Chaney’s
character, simple, “slow-thinking and ignorant”, Sergei who gets caught up in
events mostly because he hasn’t got a friend on either side. Beyond all
politics and class, he ultimately wants someone to connect with whilst all
around are simply taking advantage.
The story begins with a gruesome search for food among
the bodies of fallen soldiers. A peasant Sergei (Chaney) roots through the
pockets and bags of the dead, searching for scraps; he finds the remnants of a
chop and gnaws on the bone before spotting someone still alive. Instinctively
he moves to help, offering the man some water before he drifts away in his
arms.
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| As Sergei sees her... |
He hears a call from the bushes behind and sees a pretty
peasant girl (Barbara Bedford) she needs help in getting to the safety of
Novokursk and offers Sergei food and, more importantly, friendship, if he will
brave the threat of soldiers to get her home.
For their own safety, Sergei agrees to play the woman’s
husband but when they are discovered by soldiers their commander refuses to
accept that she is a peasant – her hands are too white – or that they are man
and wife. He whips Sergei savagely until government troops arrive on horseback
forcing them to flee.
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| Capt. Dimitri unable to apologise for his heart... |
Sergei recovers in a military hospital while we learn his
“wife’s” true identity, Countess Tatiana Alexandrova. As she waits a young
officer, Capt. Dimitri (Ricardo Cortez) who has been sent to collect her,
mistakes her for the peasant girl she seems and tries to flirt… shocked at
discovering her true identity he utters the immortal line… “Forgive me Countess. I came to escort you to headquarters… but I
cannot apologise for my heart.” Dimitri, mate, you better be one heck of a
dancer because that sort of stuff just won’t wash… or will it?
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| Ricardo Cortez |
Back in Novokursk and the twentieth century… the Countess
breezes around in stylish suede and with authority regained. She is staying at
the house of one of the newly-rich war profiteer Vladimir Gaidaroff (Mack
Swain) and his authoritarian wife (Emily Fitzroy) which is acting as a
temporary headquarters for smiley Dimitri and his regiment.
One day Sergei follows the Countess’ familiar face into
the house and, after she finally recognises him, asks if she is still his
friend… she is and rewards him with a position on her staff. This is not quite
what the simple man was expecting and when he sees her in the arms of the
handsome Captain his heart sinks.
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| The Countess' superiority |
Sergei is jealous and he is disappointed after all he
saved the Countess’ life whereas all Dimitri has ever done is smile and be
charming… his frustration is refined to anger by the careful promptings of
Ivan, the Gatekeeper (the brilliantly-named Charles Puffy) whose dentures say
so much about his politics… One day, come the Revolution, we will be the
masters and they will be the slaves… he opines whilst laughing about Sergei
behind his back.
Dimitri and his troop head off to fight the
revolutionaries leaving the house poorly defended and, when the action moves
closer to home matters come to a nasty head: the rich run running from the poor
in what looks very much like a Bolshevik Brian Rix farce.
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| Mack Swain |
In spite of the sometimes awkward shifts from slapstick
to serious, Sergei’s transformation into a vengeful revolutionary willing to
bring his mistress down is actually quite shocking and confounds the expected
trajectory – surely a noble death; steadfastly protecting the fragile beauty
beyond his reach is what is required? But no, Sergei is out to take what he
wants with no apology…
But it won’t end there – of course – and this twist saves
the story in the end and leaves the audience hanging on for a more satisfactory
resolution…
The direction from Christensen is efficient more than
inspired but there are subtle tones in there such as the heavenly halo around
the Peasant Countess’ head and Sergei’s instinctive washing of her feet: his is
a biblical love and redemption can always come after a fall.
Mack Swain and Emily Fitzroy make for excellent cartoon
capitalists whilst the pantomime proletariat are just as mincingly-effective. Barbara Bedford makes for an unconvincing
peasant – her hands are indeed too white but perhaps that’s the point - she’s
otherwise impressively compassionate and feisty and very… neat!
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| Barbara Bedford: very neat |
But it’s the Lon Chaney show and he acts through his
make-up with the usual skill – not among his major work but if this was the
only performance you’d seen, the only film left, you’d have to give it more
respect than the newspaper critics of 1927.
Mockery complete with a sympathetic new score from James Schafer is available from the
Warner Archive on DVD-R either direct or via Amazon.
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| Lon's drunk face |
.JPG)
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