The Girl with the Hat Box
About The Girl with the Hat Box
Natasha and her grandfather make hats in a cottage outside Moscow and supply Madame Irène. Irène’s husband pays Natasha with a government lottery bond he believes is worthless. It wins. Natasha has already gone through a paper marriage to Ilya, a clumsy student from the country, so he can live in a room listed as hers. The winning ticket tangles the arrangement. She and Ilya fall in love.
Cast & crew
More about The Girl with the Hat Box
Boris Barnet directed. Vadim Shershenevich and Valentin Turkin wrote it. The People’s Commissariat of Finance commissioned the picture to push government bonds. Sergei Vasilenko wrote the music. Mezhrabpom-Rus released it on 19 April 1928. It runs 67 minutes. Anna Sten is Natasha. Vladimir Mikhailov is the grandfather. Ivan Koval-Samborsky is Ilya. Serafima Birman is Madame Irène. Pavel Pol is her husband. Vladimir Fogel is Fogelev. Another title is Moscow That Laughs and Weeps. The Russian title is Девушка с коробкой.
Themes
Background
Narkomfin wanted spectators to buy state lottery bonds. The plot pays Natasha with one the payer expects to be dead paper.
Making
Barnet was handed a bond advertisement and made a hat-shop comedy. The winning ticket is the commercial. The fake marriage and Fogel’s part are the film.
Music
Silent. Sergei Vasilenko composed the score.
Preservation
A 67-minute print survives.
Notes
- The bond is the Narkomfin point: a ticket the boss thinks is a loser pays off.
- The marriage exists so Ilya can occupy a Moscow room, not as a romance at the start.
- Eva Milyutina plays Marfusha.
- Gorky Film Studio is also attached to the title in some catalogs. The contemporary company is Mezhrabpom-Rus.
- Audiences and critics both took to it, according to the filmography.
Scenes
- Irène’s husband hands over the bond as if it were nothing.
- Natasha marries Ilya so the room can be his.
- The ticket pays, and the paper marriage is no longer only paperwork.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Girl with a Hatbox (1927).webm)
