The Queen of Spades (1927 film)

The Queen of Spades
Directed by	Aleksandr Razumny
Written by	Alexander Pushkin (short story) Charlie Roellinghoff Arthur Bárdos
Starring	Jenny Jugo Rudolf Forster Henri de Vries
Cinematography	Carl Drews
Music by	Willy Schmidt-Gentner Erich Nitzschmann
Production company	Phoebus Film
Distributed by	Phoebus Film
Release date	August 1927 (1927-08)
Running time	unknown
Country	Germany
Languages	Silent German intertitles

The Queen of Spades or Pique Dame is a 1927 German silent horror film directed by Aleksandr Razumny and starring Jenny Jugo, Rudolf Forster, and Henri de Vries. It is one of many film adaptations of the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin's 1834 short story "Pikovaya Dama" ("The Queen of Spades") and follows his story closely. It is an example of German Expressionism so prevalent there following the success of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in 1919. The film's sets were designed by art director Franz Schroedter.

Plot

Tomski, a Russian soldier, mentions to the other soldiers playing cards with him that, years before, his grandmother, the Countess Tomski, told him that an old sorcerer had bestowed upon her a supernatural secret to winning at cards. Another soldier named Hermann later manages to sneak into the Countess' house and tries to wrest the secret from her. The old woman dies of fright, and later her ghost returns to haunt Hermann, driving him insane.

Cast

• Jenny Jugo as Lisa
• Rudolf Forster as Tomski the soldier
• Alexandra Schmitt as the Countess Tomski
• Walter Janssen as Hermann
• Henri de Vries as Tomski's Uncle
• Alexander Murski
• Auguste Prasch-Grevenberg as Hermann's Mother
• Robert Scholz
• Ferdinand von Alten

Bibliography

• Bock, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim, eds. (2009). The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-57181-655-9.
• Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Baltimore: Midnight Marquee Press. ISBN 978-1-936168-68-2.

External links

• The Queen of Spades at IMDb