26 Commissioners
About 26 Commissioners
In Baku in 1918 the city soviet splits over the oil port. K. Gasanov plays Stepan Shaumian among the Bolshevik commissars, while Mikhail Zharov plays a Menshevik and Igor Savchenko a Socialist Revolutionary who help take a bare majority. The twenty-six are left exposed as outside armies close on the city. After their deaths the last images turn them into ships' guns and trains rolling back toward Baku.
Cast & crew
More about 26 Commissioners
Nikoloz Shengelaia directed, with Stepan Kevorkov also credited, from a scenario by Aleksandr Rzheshevsky, Amiragov, and Shengelaia. It opened in the Soviet Union in February 1933, still silent, and Amkino released it in the United States on 30 June 1933. Yevgeni Shneider was the cinematographer and Viktor Aden the designer.
Themes
Reviews
Ralph Bond, writing in Cinema Quarterly, said Shengelaia's selection of types was superb, and so was the camera work.
Look
Yevgeni Shneider photographed the Baku locations on 35mm.
Music
Silent.
Notes
- Baba-Zade plays Azizbekov. Hayri Emir-zade plays a commissar. Ivan Klyukvin plays the Red Army soldier Petka.
- Veriko Anjaparidze plays a worker's wife. Vladimir Gardin plays a citizen with a chrysanthemum.
- P. Ryazanov plays General Denville, and Kh. Venarikov plays Captain Johnson.
- Silent Era is unsure whether the production credit should read Azerbaijanfilm, Georgian-Film, or Azerkino.
- Ralph Bond, in Cinema Quarterly, praised Shengelaia's choice of types and the camera work.
Scenes
- The soviet vote leaves the Bolshevik faction in the minority.
- After the deaths, the commissars become naval guns and trains heading for Baku.
