The Queen of Spades
About The Queen of Spades
Hermann, an officer who does not gamble, hears that old Countess Fedotovna once learned three cards that always win. He courts her ward Lizaveta to get into the house, then faces the countess with a revolver. She dies of fright. Her phantom names the three, the seven, and the ace. He wins with the three, then the seven. On the third night, betting everything, he draws the queen of spades, loses the stake, and loses his mind. Ivan Mozzhukhin plays Hermann.
Cast & crew
More about The Queen of Spades
Yakov Protazanov directed and shared the script with Fyodor Otsep, from Pushkin's 1834 story. Joseph N. Ermolieff produced. Yevgeny Slavinsky photographed. Released in the Russian Empire on April 1, 1916, and in the United States on November 18, 1917. Vera Orlova plays Lizaveta. Yelizaveta Shebueva plays the old countess. Tamara Duvan plays her young. Nikolai Panov plays Count St. Germain. The Russian title is Пиковая дама.
Themes
Look
Yevgeny Slavinsky shot the card rooms. Protazanov splits the frame and dissolves into the countess's past and into Hermann's vision.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- This is not the Khanzhonkov production. Ermolieff made it.
- Pyotr Chardynin had already filmed the Tchaikovsky opera version in 1910.
- Protazanov uses a split screen, a jump cut, and a vision of the dead countess.
- Mozzhukhin is Hermann. He does not play the count.
Scenes
- The countess dies when he shows the revolver.
- He turns the queen of spades instead of the ace.
Influenced by
- Alexander Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades" (1834)
