Маска
About Маска
A charity masked ball is underway at a club. A man in a coachman's costume and a black mask shoves the gentlemen out of the reading room and sits down with two women. The club steward and a police officer cannot move him. He only gets louder. When the mask comes off, the room sees Yegor Nilych Pyatigorov, a local millionaire and benefactor. The outrage turns into laughter. The organizer walks him to his carriage and tells the guests that Yegor Nilych left content.
Cast & crew
More about Маска
Sergei Sploshnov directed and adapted Anton Chekhov's story The Mask. O. Kolodny produced. David Shlyugleyt photographed. Stepan Kayukov, Vitaly Politseymako, Konstantin Adashevsky, and Pyotr Gofman are in the cast. The studio was Sovetskaya Belarus. The short runs 25 minutes and was released in 1938.
Themes
Making
Sploshnov keeps Chekhov's turn: the bully is intolerable until the fortune is visible, and then he is a wit.
Look
David Shlyugleyt shot the club rooms, the masked entrance, and the unmasking.
Preservation
A print of the short survives.
Notes
- Chekhov's story of the same name was published in 1884.
- The scandal happens in the reading room, not on the dance floor.
- Once the millionaire is recognized, the same guests who protested start to laugh.
- The narrative setting is the Russian Empire, matching the club and the police rank in the story.
- Inna Fyodorova and Vsevolod Sanaev are also credited on the English cast list.
Scenes
- The masked coachman throws the gentlemen out of the reading room.
- He takes off the mask and is Pyatigorov.
- The organizer walks him out and reports that the benefactor left pleased.
Influenced by
- Anton Chekhov's story The Mask (1884)