The Devil's Wheel

The Devil's Wheel

40 mins | Crime, Action | March 15, 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.

The Devil's Wheel

40 mins | Crime, Action | March 15, 1926

The Devil's Wheel
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.
IMDb rating 6.6
Producers Lenfilm
Original title Чёртово колесо
Directors Leonid Trauberg, Grigori Kozintsev
Writers Adrian Piotrovskiy

Cast

Pyotr Sobolevsky

as Vanya Shorin, Red fleet sailor

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 Zhejmo

as Hooligan girl

Viktor Plotnikov

as Salvation army member

Arnold Arnold

as Editor

Andrei Kostrichkin

as Drummer

Mikhail Shifman

as (uncredited)

Viktor Chaynikov

as Sailor (uncredited)