Queen of Spades (1949) St. Petersburg Period Fantasy Noir

"Wow, what a surprise!"

Directed by Thorold Dickinson (Hill 24 Doesn't Answer). 

Written by Rodney Ackland and Arthur Boys, and based on the short story by Alexander Pushkin. The impressive Cinematography was by Otto Heller (Temptation Harbor, I Became A Criminal, The Ladykillers, Peeping Tom, The Ipcress File, Alfie ). The Music was by Georges Auric (Wages of Fear, Beauty And The Beast). The excellent Sound design by Audrey Bennett, F. McNally, and Len Shilton of the Sound Department.

Anton Walbrook (Gaslight, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp) as Captain Herman Suvorin, Edith Evans (Tom Jones) as Countess Ranevskaya, Yvonne Mitchell (Saphire) as Lizaveta Ivanovna, Ronald Howard as Andrei, Mary Jerrold as Old Varvarushka, Anthony Dawson (Dial M For Murder, Tiger Bay, Death Rides A Horse, Red Sun) as Fyodor, Miles Malleson (A Christmas Carol) as Tchybukin. 

Anton Walbrook as Captain Herman Suvorin

Yvonne Mitchell as Lizaveta Ivanovna

Edith Evans as Countess Ranevskaya

Ronald Howard left as Andrei, and  Anthony Dawson right as Fyodor

With Michael Medwin as Hovaisky, Athene Seyler as Princess Ivashin, Ivor Barnard as Bookseller, Aubrey Mallalieu as Fedya, Maroussia Dimitrevitch as Gypsy singer, Violetta Elvin as Gypsy dancer, Pauline Tennant as young Countess Ranevskaya. Hay Petrie as Herman's servant and Aubrey Woods as Dimitri.

Our tale starts with a screen card explaining that in old St. Petersburg circa 1806, the card game of Faro was the thing. Fortunes were won or lost at the turn of a card. During this craze for Faro superstitions arose surrounding the Queen of Spades.

So lets stop right here and let's explain Faro. Originally Faro, was a 17th-century French gambling game, it can be played with any number of players, but when it's only two players it becomes a game of pure chance where the player bets on whether the next card turned up by the dealer will match a card he has chosen and has laying face down on the table in front of him. 

So with two players it goes like this. A dealer is chosen.  Each player selects from a second deck a card of any rank and lays it face down in front of him.  A bet is agreed upon for a certain sum.  The dealer shuffles a standard deck of fifty-two, cuts the deck discards the top card to the side and then lays the next two cards down face up side by side making eventually two face up piles. One pile is the dealers the other the opposing players pile. If the dealer plays the same rank card on the the players pile that matches the players hole card the player wins. If the dealers card matches his hole card then the dealer wins. 

When more than two players are playing it's played differently, it requires a regular deck of 52 cards plus an extra 13 cards of any suit laid out face up in a format called the tableau. 

K-Q-J-10-9-8

                        7

A-2-3-4-5-6

The dealer shuffles the deck, the deck is cut, and the first card is flipped over and discarded and laid off to the side of play. 

Now players have chips and they can bet by placing your chips on the rank card in the tableau that you think will be first turned over by the dealer. 

The dealer deals two cards starting a loser card pile and a winning card pile face up side by side. If a player has chips on the card of the losing pile he loses his bet. If he has his chips on the card of the wining pile the bank pays him the amount of his bet. It has a few other wrinkles in the betting rules but that is the gist of it.

The Story

An ornately appointed public gaming house, possibly based on the famous "Black Eagle" (Черный Орел) or a similar establishment, is a favorite watering hole frequented by Russian military guard officers.

Maroussia Dimitrevitch as gypsy singer

The officers spend their time drinking and gambling away their pay at Faro. The entertainment is singing and dancing to gypsy music. A recurring piece in the film is a drinking song where a glass filled with Vodka is held in the hand of the female singer. 

She sings a verse in Romani and brings the glass to the lucky man she choses. Kneeling down on bended knee she holds the glass low as in an offering. The man chosen reaches down, takes the glass and then stands, lifting the glass to his lips, and knocking it down in one motion. 

The empty glass is then forcefully smashed on the floor and the woman begins to sing her verse again. 

The various imperial guard officers usually playing Faro are watched by a Herman a German who is serving as an engineering officer in the Imperial Russian Army. Herman does not gambol with his money. 

On this particular night he's watching three officers. One of them Petroff is shuffling through the ranks for a hole card for the next Faro game, Hovalski and Prince Andrei watch. When he gets to the queen of spades Andrei "exclaims for heavens sake don't bet the queen of spades." Petroff disregards their superstitions saying all the cards are unlucky and plays the queen of spades anyway and pushes out his whole years pay.

The dealer Prince Fyodor, after shuffling and cutting the deck discards the top card face up off to the side. then starts building two piles My win, Your win, My win etc., etc, until the dealer plays the queen of spades on his pile and wins the pot. 

Petroff stands up to leave, Andrei offers to buy him a glass of wine. Fyodor wants to go on playing. Andrei tells him no it's getting too late, and to distract him, that there's food on the side table.

Fyodor: I want to go on paying, I don't care if I loose every kopek. Who'll play for double stakes? 

His fellow officers continue to discourage him, leaving for the side table. Fyodor notices Herman standing near the table.

Fyodor: Hey why don't you play? standing there like a French spy watching us.

Andrei tells Fyodor that Herman is there as his guest. Fyodor walks over to Herman.

Fyodor: Tell me this sir, if you're so interested to come here night after night how come you never touch a card?

Hovalski: Are you trying to work out a system?

Herman: Playing interests me very much, but I cannot afford to risk the necessary in the hopes of winning the pot.

We cut to more entertainment the signer begins another song in Romani and a dancer is now the center of attention. Herman watches the merriment and says to himself "some day I'll show them." Herman makes his way out of the gaming house.

Michael Medwin as Holvalski

Violetta Elvin as gypsy dancer

We then cut back to Andrei, Fyodor, and Hovalski, they are by the side table talking about cards and Herman, saying that Herman is the kind of guy who wont play anything unless he was sure of winning. The talk turns to Fyodor's grandmother, the Countess Ranevskaya, and how she was a big winner at Faro. The tale is that she sold her soul to the devil to get the secret.

Outside the gaming house we see Herman stopped outside and leaning over an open window listening to their conversation about the Countess Raneyskaya. 

Herman [to himself]: The secret at how to win at cards...

We cut to the officers rooming house next door. 

Herman enters his quarters and dismisses his servant who he finds is sleeping in front of the fire. As he leaves Andrei enters the room and apologizes for Fyodor. He tries to convince Herman to return to the party, but Herman begs off saying that he can't afford to spend money. 

Andrei replies that he's going to get some sleep to. After Andrei is gone Herman pulls out his money box and looks at his money.

 We cut to the inside of a notary public's office. Herman is complaining to Tchybukin about how he's only a captain, and that the only way to get ahead is to either have money or to be related to someone in the royal family.

Tchybukin: My advice to you is to be content, as I am. Take life as you find it.

Herman: I'd rather take it by the throat, and force it to give me what I want.

Miles Malleson as Tchybukin

"I'd Rather take it by the throat...."

When Herman leaves the notary, he is drawn to a bookstore. There inside he accidently drops a rare book titled "The Strange Secrets of the Count de Saint Germain" - True stories of people who sold their souls for wealth, power, or influence. The bookseller sells him the book for three rubles.

Ivor Barnard as Bookseller

Herman exits the shop and begins to walk back through the city, leafing through the book as he goes, he finds the story of the secret of the three cards and of the Countess R*** who he realizes has to be the  Countess Raneyskaya. 

Here we go into a flashback

The mysterious Count de Saint Germain has come to Russia, and buys an abandoned mansion at the edge of St. Petersburg. Soon strange rumors arise among the locals of the strange goings on in the house. 

It seems Saint Germain collects souls. He chooses his victims with great care modeling them in clay and then keeping them floating in glass jars in a rudimentary laboratory, his souls collection.

His next victim is Countess Raneyskya, rumored to be the most beautiful woman in Russia. 

We cut to a ball. The Countess was a bit of a round heels. She is married but carries on with countless affairs. The Countess and her latest lover are seen together. She tells him not now, and to come back later to the secret door at her mansion. On her way back to the ball a man calls out to her. 

Servant of St. Germain: Stranger I think you need my masters help.

Countess Raneyskaya: I need no ones help.

Servant of St. Germain: You will countess. You will need it tomorrow.

Countess Raneyskaya: Tomorrow. Can he see into the future then?

Servant of St. Germain: He can see a long way.

Countess Raneyskaya: Who is he?

Servant of St. Germain He's known as Baron Germain. You will find him at the Dolcoruky Palace.

The servant departs and later that night the countess lets her lover in her bedroom by the secret door. They make love and later she awakes in her empty bed to find her this latest paramour rummaging around her bedroom looking for her money. 

Complicating things is the untimely arrival of her husband the count, he's knocking at the door demanding entry to the bedroom. She is forced to agree to give her latest conquest, the key to money box, to get him to leave. So with fortune in hand he departs through the secret door in the bookcase, and out of the house, leaving behind an empty cash box.

Frantic now to replace the money she goes to the palace of the Count de Saint Germain. Saint Germain gives her the secret of the three winning cards with a solemn vow that no one else will ever know the secret. 

With her new knowledge of the secret of the three cards she goes back to her palace and grabs a gold  necklace with a large crucifix and heads to a gaming house and plays the three cards at Faro winning a all the money that was stole back plus a fortune of her own.

End of flashback

Back to Herman who just coincidentally finds himself in a small crowd watching a mansion where a ball is being held. A man in the crowd mentions that it's not everyday the Countess Raneyskaya gives a ball. 

Herman is stunned to find that the countess is still alive, and it starts all going Noirsville when he becomes obsessed with finding out the secret of the three cards. 

He stakes out the palace, and watches the mansion all through the night. In the early morning he spots a young woman looking out of a window. Their eyes meet. 

When soon after a seamstress emerges from the mansion Herman finds out that the young woman he saw is Lizaveta Ivanovna. Herman now figures that the best way to get close to the countess is to woo Lizaveta. To complicate things Prince Andrei becomes smitten with Lizaveta also.

This is at about the 25 minute mark. 

Noirsville 

        Edith Evans as Countess Ranevskaya and Athene Seyler as Princess Ivashin

This is an extraordinarily good Period Fantasy Noir. The story and the manner in which it's Visually Stylistically shot along with it's Sound Design is excellent. I can seriously ask WHY is this film not more widely known? It doesn't make sense, with all the interest in Film Noir this should jump out as an extraordinary example. This is on par with Val Lewton's productions.

The Director, Cinematographer, and the Sound Department created a masterpiece of Fantasy Noir. The cast is excellent the music is great its a Visual treat. Bravo! 10/10