The Devil's Wheel (1926)
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.
Directors: Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg.
 |
Pyotr Sobolevsky as Vanya Shorin, Red fleet sailor |
 |
Lyudmila Semyonova as Valya |
 |
Sergei Gerasimov as The Question Man |
 |
Emil Gal as Koko, vaudeville performer |
 |
Antonio Tserep as Tavern Owner |
|
Nikolay Gorodnichev as House manager |
|
V. Lande as Cafe dancer |
 |
Sergei Martinson as Orchestra conductor |
|
Yevgeniy Kumeyko as Hooligan |
|
I. Berezin as Hooligan |
 |
Yanina Zheymo as Hooligan girl |
|
Tatyana Ventsel as |
|
Viktor Plotnikov as Salvation army member |
 |
Arnold Arnold as Editor |
 |
Aleksandr Kostomolotsky as |
 |
Aleksei Kapler as |
 |
Andrei Kostrichkin as Drummer |
 |
Mikhail Shifman as (uncredited) |
|
Viktor Chaynikov as Sailor (uncredited) |
|
N. Foregger as |
| Directing | Grigori Kozintsev | Director |
| Directing | Leonid Trauberg | Director |
| Writing | Adrian Piotrovskiy | Writer |
| Camera | Andrey Moskvin | Director of Photography |
| Art | Evgeny Eney | Production Design |
