“CARD TRICKS”

By Raymond Benson

This British gem was considered a lost film until a print was somehow discovered a little over ten years ago and re-released in art houses and on home video. The Queen of Spades, from 1949, was one of only nine pictures helmed by Thorold Dickinson, a Norwegian director who worked mostly in the UK but also in Europe and Africa. He was perhaps most known for directing the original British version of Gaslight (1940), which George Cukor and MGM suppressed when they remade it as a Hollywood movie in 1944 (with Ingrid Bergman). There are some who believe Dickinson’s Gaslight is the better of the two.

Dickinson has been re-appraised in recent years by the likes of filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson, and by critics with a taste for genuine style and substance in their movies. The Queen of Spades was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Picture in its year and is now deemed as one of the better atmospheric dramas of the supernatural, fitting nicely beside such psychological fare as The Haunting (1963).

Interestingly, Dickinson was hired as a replacement director mere days before shooting was set to commence. He replaced co-screenwriter Rodney Ackland (who wrote it with Arthur Boys), because apparently there were disagreements between Ackland and the star, Anton Walbrook, and the producer, Anatole de Grunwald (who was also a colorful character in British cinema). Dickinson did a few days of preparation and then showed up on the set on a Monday morning ready to work. The result is quite impressive.

The tale, based on an Alexander Pushkin short story, is set in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the early 1800s. This alone provides the filmmakers with a broad canvas for set design, art direction, and elaborate costumes, which are all gorgeous in glorious black and white (and it’s arguable that the movie would not have worked as well had it been in color).

Captain Herman Suvorin (Walbrook, who had appeared in several Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger productions), is a haughty, ambitious man who desires the “secret” to winning a fortune at a popular card game called “Faro.” He learns from a creepy bookseller that the aging and wealthy Countess Ranevskaya (Dame Edith Evans, in her first film role at the age of sixty!) had “sold her soul to the devil” many years ago when she learned this secret. Herman sets out to get to the countess and extract the knowledge from the old woman by any means possible, the easiest being to seduce the countess’ innocent and beautiful ward, Lizavetta (Yvonne Mitchell), and infiltrating the spooky palace through her. Meanwhile, Lizavetta is being wooed by Herman’s friend, Andrei (Ronald Howard), who is buddies with the countess’ grandson, Fyodor (a young Anthony Dawson, whom cinema fans will recognize from Dial M for Murder and Dr. No). Conflict arises between Herman and Andrei, but things really get sinister and ghostly once the captain eventually confronts the countess.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray restoration shows off Otto Heller’s dreamy cinematography, and the film comes with an audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton, as well as English subtitles for the hearing impaired. Supplements include a short video introduction by Martin Scorsese; a rather dry video analysis by film critic/author Philip Horne; a 1951 audio interview with Dickinson at the British Federation of Film Societies; and a 1968 audio introduction to a screening of the film by Dickinson in front of an audience. The theatrical trailer for this and other Kino Lorber releases complete the package.

The Queen of Spaces is a fascinating and moody piece of work, certainly for fans of British cinema, period drama, and things that go bump in the night.

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