The Shining Path
About The Shining Path
In the spring of 1930, illiterate Tanya Morozova comes from the village to Moscow and works as a servant for a former NEPman. The mistress fires her, jealous of the engineer Alexei Lebedev. Tanya's friend Maria Pronina gets her a weaving job at the factory. After she helps stop the saboteur Samokhin, Tanya joins the Stakhanovite drive, runs 150 machines instead of eight, and qualifies as an engineer. At the Kremlin she receives the Order of Lenin and is elected to the Supreme Soviet. She later meets Lebedev again, now the factory director.
Cast & crew
More about The Shining Path
Grigori Aleksandrov directed this Mosfilm musical from Viktor Ardov's play Cinderella. He wanted to keep that title. Stalin refused, and Aleksandrov chose Svetlyy put from a list of twelve titles Stalin supplied. Everyday scenes were shot at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. The factory scenes used the Bogorodsko-Glukhovskaya mill in Noginsk.
Themes
Background
The story starts in 1930, after the NEP years, and sends a village servant through a Stakhanovite factory into the Supreme Soviet.
Making
Stalin struck the title Cinderella. Aleksandrov picked the new name from twelve titles Stalin had drawn up. Orlova learned the looms before she played the record-setting weaver.
Music
Isaak Dunayevsky wrote the music. The 1941 song folio pairs an opening song, lyric by M. Volnin, with "March of the Enthusiasts," lyric by A. D'Aktil.
Notes
- The Russian title is Svetlyy put. English-language copies are also called Tanya and Bright Path.
- Lyubov Orlova plays Tanya. Yevgeny Samoylov plays Lebedev. Elena Tyapkina plays Maria Pronina.
- Weaver Dusya Vinogradova, who ran 216 machines in a shift, was the model for Tanya.
- Before shooting, Orlova qualified as a weaver and worked three months at the Moscow Research Institute of the Textile Industry.
- A 1941 Muzgiz folio of two songs from the film credits M. Volnin with the lyric of the opening song and A. D'Aktil with "March of the Enthusiasts.
Scenes
- The mistress fires Tanya out of jealousy over Lebedev.
- Tanya takes 150 looms instead of the usual eight.
- She is given the Order of Lenin at the Kremlin.
Influenced by
- Cinderella (Viktor Ardov)
