Film

The Queen Of Spades

Cert: PG

Description: Army Captain Herman Suvorin yearns to win a fortune at cards so he can realise his grand dreams. He happens upon an old book, which reveals that it's possible to sell your soul to the Devil in exchange for magical powers. Countess Ranevskaya is rumoured to have done just that, in exchange for always holding the right cards during a game. Suvorin is desperate to know her secret so he aligns himself with her young ward Lizavetta.

Evening Standard rating

Reader rating

Your rating

Click on a star to rate

Dir: Thorold Dickinson.

Cast: Anton Walbrook, Anthony Dawson, Ronald Howard, Yvonne Mitchell, Edith Evans, Mary Jerrold

Country: UK.

Year: 1949.

Duration: 95mins

The Queen of Spades is a macabre fantasy film

Card sharp: The Queen of Spades

24 Dec 2009

Thorold Dickenson, a more than able British film-maker and notable teacher largely forgotten now, made this macabre fantasy set in Imperial Russia in 1949.

It is his best film, taken from a Pushkin short story about an impecunious gambler (Anton Walbrook) seeking to wrest the secret of winning at cards from a wicked old countess (Edith Evans).

Imaginative camerawork and suitably eerie sound effects render the film one of the best of its kind made in this country.

Released 26 December.