Sonka the Golden Hand
About Sonka the Golden Hand
Eight serial chapters, 1914 to 1916, follow Sofya Blyuvshtein, called Sonka the Golden Hand. In the first, released 19 September 1914, Prince Masalsky saves a girl from bandits in a park after a party. She is the daughter of a Jewish trader. She becomes his companion. He loses almost everything at the races and tries to shoot himself. She steals a large sum from her father to save him, is informed on, and goes to prison. She feigns madness, is sent to an asylum, starts a fire, and escapes in the director’s dress. Masalsky will not take her back. She drugs a businessman, robs him, sets his rooms alight, and still gets him out. With a decent flat she swaps a fake necklace for a real one in a shop. She bears Masalsky’s child and gives the baby to a childless woman.
Cast & crew
More about Sonka the Golden Hand
Alexander Drankov’s firm made chapters 1 through 6. The Kinolenta office made 7 and 8. Directors credited across the serial are Vladimir Kasyanov, Yuri Yuryevsky, and Aleksandr Chargonin. Nina Gofman plays Sonka. Chapter 1 is five parts, 1,550 meters. Chapter 2, 27 October 1914, is four parts and 1,300 meters. Alternate titles are The Adventures of the Famous Adventuress Sofya Blyuvshtein and Sofya Isaakovna Blyuvshtein.
Themes
Background
Sofya Blyuvshtein was a nineteenth-century thief whose nickname was Sonka the Golden Hand. The serial uses that name.
Making
Drankov kept Gofman in the role while the chapters multiplied. The first installment is a full crime plot by itself: the prince, the prison, the asylum fire, the necklace, and the child given away.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Of eight chapters, four survive in part: 1, 4, 5, and 6. Chapters 2, 3, 7, and 8 are lost. A Commons file is the first chapter.
Notes
- Chapter 2, which does not survive, has her slip the police and rob a fur shop.
- What remains: chapter 1 in four of five parts; chapter 4 in three parts; chapter 5 in one part; chapter 6 in four fragmentary parts. Chapters 2, 3, 7, and 8 are lost.
- Rocco Espagnoli plays a detective agent. A cornet named Savin and the detective Putilin figure in chapter 5, according to a 1915 Sine-fono note.
- A contemporary notice praised Gofman in the part and Boris Svetlov as a student.
- Count Amori is named as the scenarist of a later chapter in that same press.
Scenes
- Masalsky pulls her away from bandits in the park.
- She steals from her father after he tries to shoot himself at the races.
- Dressed as the asylum director, she walks out of a fire she set.
- She trades a false necklace for a real one, then gives away the child.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1914. Сонька Золотая Ручка, 1 я серия.webm)
