Typically of the heady days of early Soviet cinema, this is constructed according to the fast, sharp editing principles advocated by Eisenstein, complete with symbolic inserts; but in terms of subject matter, it's much less explicitly political than most movies emerging from Russia in the '20s. Chronicling a young sailor's descent into a murky, treacherous underworld of pimps and thieves, after having encountered a Louise Brooks lookalike at a fairground and missed his departing boat, it's a lively moral fable that delights in vivid visual effects and quirky characterisations. If the plot occasionally reveals gaping holes, and the tacked-on ending urging the clearance of the Leningrad slums seems to be rather gratuitous, there's enough going on to keep one attentive and amused.
Directed by Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg
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Cast
Pyotr Sobolevsky
Vanya Shorin, Red fleet sailor
Lyudmila Semyonova
Valya
Sergei Gerasimov
The Question Man
Emil Gal
Koko, vaudeville performer
Antonio Tserep
Tavern Owner
Nikolay Gorodnichev
House manager
V. Lande
Cafe dancer
Sergei Martinson
Orchestra conductor
Yevgeniy Kumeyko
Hooligan
I. Berezin
Hooligan
Yanina Zheymo
Hooligan girl
Tatyana Ventsel
Viktor Plotnikov
Salvation army member
Arnold Arnold
Editor
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