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Rasputin (1928 film)

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1928 film

Rasputin, The Prince of Sinners
Theatrical film poster
GermanDornenweg einer Fürstin
Directed byNikolai Larin
Boris Nevolin
Written by
  • Boris Nevolin
  • Nikolai Neboli
  • Irvin Shapiro
Starring
CinematographyEmil Schünemann
Production
companies		Memento Film-Fabrik
Vertrieb
Distributed bySüd film
Release date
  • 12 November 1928 (1928-11-12)
Running time87 minutes
CountriesGermany
Soviet Union
LanguagesSilent
German intertitles

Rasputin, The Prince of Sinners (German: Dornenweg einer Fürstin), or simply Rasputin, is a 1928 German-Soviet drama film co-directed by Nikolai Larin and Boris Nevolin and starring Vladimir Gajdarov, Suzanne Delmas and Ernst Rückert. The film's poster showed the tagline "rysslands onda ande", which translates as "Russia's Evil Spirit". It was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by Carl Ludwig Kirmse. This film is sometimes confused with another 1928 German silent film made about Rasputin called Rasputin, the Holy Sinner.

This being the only known German-Russian co-production ever done about Rasputin, the filmmakers were able to shoot the film at or near the historical places where the real life incidents portrayed actually occurred. In 1928, Russian authorities were interested in showing Rasputin as the monster he really was, rather than try to elicit sympathy for the character. He is depicted as a sexually promiscuous alcoholic with abhorrent manners, similar to the manner in which Hammer Films later portrayed him in their 1966 Christopher Lee film, Rasputin the Mad Monk.

Plot

The film is set during the tumultuous period of the 1917 Russian Revolution. As the old order crumbles, the bourgeoisie and aristocracy live in fear while Bolshevik marauders sweep through the land. Those members of the former ruling class who escape massacre attempt to flee to Western Europe. The film hints that much of this upheaval can be attributed to the actions of the mystic monk Rasputin, whose influence is shown in several key scenes.

Among the Russian exiles seeking a fresh start in Western Europe are two protagonists from vastly different social classes: Alexander Kolossow, a young student and former lieutenant who was arrested as a spy in St. Petersburg and sentenced to death, and Princess Ludmilla Voronzowa, a disgraced member of the nobility.

Alexander and Ludmilla share a past; they knew and respected each other during better times in St. Petersburg. Now, under entirely different circumstances, they meet again in Berlin—both impoverished but alive. Princess Ludmilla contemplates marrying a humble chauffeur named Radlow to secure her future. Meanwhile, Alexander works modestly as an employee in a confectionery and seeks to achieve what societal norms once forbade him: to win Ludmilla’s hand and heart.

In the freer society of Germany, the two overcome their class differences and ultimately marry, finding a new life together despite their shared hardships.

Cast

References

  1. ^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Midnight Marquee Press. p. 330. ISBN 1936168685.
  2. Bock, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim, eds. (2009). The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. New York, NY: Berghahn Books. p. 8. ISBN 1571816550. JSTOR j.ctt1x76dm6.

External links

Grigori Rasputin in popular culture
Films
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