Pikovaya dama

Pikovaya dama (1910)

*** (out of 4)

Germann (Pavel Biryukov) learns of a woman who in her youth discovered a secret to three cards. German plans to steal the information so that he can become a master at cards but in doing so the woman dies.

This Russian film was the first version of Alexander Pushkin's story "The Queen of Spades" and for the most part it's pretty good. At just fifteen-minutes there's obviously not enough time to go into great details of the story but all of the basic plot points are here and it makes for an entertaining film. The performances are actually quite good and especially Biryukov who plays the lead. Obviously these are performances from the era so one really shouldn't complain as acting them shouldn't be compared to what came in the sound era. The production values were quite good and the film certainly looks very good.