White’s film follows a group of friends who experience the latter outcome, to unsettling, though sometimes predictable, results. However, the Queen of Spades is not always in the mood to grant wishes, and sometimes instead feels like harming those who have summoned her. If performed correctly, the specter will appear and grant one wish. Then, participants in the ritual must order her to show herself by saying her name three times. The Queen of Spades can be conjured in a similar fashion, in which one must draw, using lipstick, a door and some stairs on a mirror. In director Patrick White’s Queen of Spades, he explores what many refer to as the “ Russian version of Bloody Mary,” the popular American legend said to be summoned by saying Mary’s name three times in the mirror of a dark bathroom. Urban Legends are a hot topic in films today, with many features focusing on more and more obscure but intriguing tales from around the world that lend themselves to the horror genre. If you enjoy classic British films and ghost stories, this is one to seek out.Queen of Spades (Patrick White, 2021) 2½ out of 4 stars. It is especially memorable for stunning design work and committed leading performances. Overall, ‘The Queen of Spades’ is a brilliant adaptation of a classic Russian story. The heightened reality of melodrama won’t prove to everybody’s taste. The story of ‘The Queen of Spades’ unfolds in a fairly predictable way, certainly for modern audiences used to morality tales of this nature. Literary critic Professor Philip Horne is also on hand to discuss the film’s success in capturing the essence of Pushkin’s story. Film critic Anna Bogutskaya pays homage to the movie. The director speaks from his home in the English countryside and appears shy and modest, but he explains about the challenges he had to overcome in making ‘The Queen of Spades’. There is a lengthy two-part interview with Thorold Dickinson on Saturday Night at the Movies. An audio Commentary by journalist and film historian Nick Pinkerton offers a guide to its making, which also comes with an introduction by celebrated director Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver). This new Blu-ray release comes packed with a number of extra features that illustrate the historical significance of the film and the regard with which it is held. The final result is a memorable and commanding performance. The make-up job helps to age her yet further, whilst also giving her a spectral appearance. She would have been in her early sixties when she landed her first major screen role in ‘The Queen of Spades’. She only branched out into cinematic roles much later in her life and career. Old enough to have helped to launch the career of Laurence Olivier, Evans had become a stage star in her younger years. Dame Edith Evans is wonderful as the ailing Countess Ranevskaya. Yet the climax in which a clammy-faced Suvorin clutches at a deck of cards is a masterclass in mad obsession. The romance between Suvorin and Lizavyeta is unsettling in its coldness, and Yvonne Mitchell is equal to the task of ensuring the audience’s sympathy is firmly with her. His character is always set apart from others, including his fellow soldiers. Anton Walbrook bravely doesn’t even attempt to make Suvorin likeable. The performances sell the film as a melodrama. The unscrupulous Suvorin feigns a romance with the Countess’s ward, Lizavyeta (Yvonne Mitchell), so that he might win the elderly woman’s confidence and eventually force her to expose her secret. He hears tell of an elderly Countess (Edith Evans) who sold her soul to the devil in order that she might win a fortune at cards, but she has sworn to take her secret to the grave. Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) is a Captain in the army, but he is resentful that his humble origins prevent him from joining the officer class, the status from which would allow him to accrue a vast personal fortune. The story deals with human greed and unhealthy obsession. The design is one of the stand-out triumphs of the film. The snowy St Petersburg of Pushkin’s story is stunningly recreated in Welwyn Studios and effectively shot by renowned cinematographer Otto Heller. This production translates its literary source material faithfully, and is set in the early part of the Nineteenth Century. This film was its first English-language adaptation. The celebrated post-war film is based on the 1833 Alexander Pushkin story which is a favourite in Russian literature. A new title in Studiocanal’s ‘Vintage Classics’ range is the 1949 tale of the supernatural ‘The Queen of Spades’, which had a limited cinematic release last month and now enjoys availability on Blu-ray and DVD.
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