Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

32 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 2 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF THE 16MM SCREEN VERSION OF JULES VERNE'S THE ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL STROGOFF Available Through Bell & Hotvell Company and Associated Distributors BY FRANCES TAYLOR PATTERSON Instructor in Motion Pictures, Columbia University EDITOR'S NOTE Most stories fall into two classes — stories of decision and stories of achievement. The novels of Jules Verne belong in the latter class. The titles of the stories of this noted Flench author, who lived from 1828 to 1905, reveal at once that they deal with men of action and imagination, whose achievements are so extraordinary that they amaze you: “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “A Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “From the Earth to the Moon,” “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” “Captain of the Pole Star.” Even his “Around the World in Eighty Days” was as thrilling in its time as “Around the Earth in a Single Day” would be now. Verne’s 19th-century tales of imaginary voyages, fantastic adventures, and marvelous inventions anticipated the submarine, the airplane, jet propulsion, television. His heroes are perfect prototypes of the Superman of today. To the one end of manly action, Verne subordinates love elements and social comment. He interweaves no satire, such as permeates “Gulliver’s Travels” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Accordingly, Michael Strogoff, Courier of the Czar, is purely and simply a man of heroic action, for whose success we find ourselves rooting and cheering. Devoid of political, philosophical, or ideological implications, the story is pure entertainment, an example of colorful melodrama as such from start to finish. The film version is true to the type of the original story and its Russian setting. In adapting it to the screen, the producer captured the sparkle and dash of its style. Students will find it fascinating to compare the film and the book, to note the episodes that provide the basis for brilliant flashes of cinematic melodrama, and to find answers to the interesting questions in Mrs. Patterson’s Guide. Michael Strogoff, Courier of the Czar, receives despatches from Alexander II to the Grand Duke Vladimir. THE STORY In the year 1870 the Tartar hordes of Siberia revolt against Russian rule. They are led by the traitor, Ivan Ogareff, formerly a colonel in the Russian army. The Tartars have cut the telegraph line, leaving the forces of the Grand Duke isolated at Irkutsk. Military orders must be sent him by courier. Michael Strogoff, a captain of the Imperial Guard, is chosen to carry the despatches under the name of Nicholas Korpanoff, merchant. A traitor in the palace immediately sets a woman spy, Zangarra, to follow him. On the train to Nijni-Novgorod, Michael finds Zangarra; Cyril Blount, a British war correspondent; Eddie Packer, an American correspondent; and Nadia, a young Russian girl traveling alone. Zangarra makes an effort to attract Strogoff, but he is more interested in Nadia. At NijniNovgorod Zangarra meets Ogareff at a gypsy camp. Summarily Ogareff sends Zangarra back with his aide, Vassily, to take the boat to Omsk and to get Strogoff’s papers. At the government bureau Strogoff finds Nadia in tears. She must get to her father, who is ill at Omsk, but officials have denied her a passport. Strogoff arranges with the police to allow his “sister” to accompany him. On the boat Strogoff rescues Zangarra from a bear which has escaped from a troupe of entertainers. Zangarra sends for him to come to her cabin in order to thank him. Vassily wants to assassinate him to get the papers, but the woman spy hesitates to kill the man who has just saved her life. She will get the plans later by strategy. Strogoff, suspicious, slips off the boat with Nadia at the next landing and pioceeds by carriage. At a posthouse a traveler, Ogareff, disputes Strogoff’s right to the only available horses. Neither knows the identity of the other. For the safety of his mission, Strogoff refuses to fight over the horses — or over a cut from Ogareff’s whip. Strogoff and Nadia, continuing their journey in a peasant cart, are being ferried across the river near Omsk when a Tartar band attacks them. Strogoff, badly wounded, is knocked overboard. Nadia is taken prisoner. A sheepherder pulls Strogoff unconscious from the river. When he comes to, after several days, he starts feverishly for Omsk. At Omsk, now in the hands of the Tartars, Ogareff, furious at Zangarra and Vassily for letting Strogoff escape them, orders a thorough seai’ch of the city. Strogoff, going to an inn to secure a horse, is joyfully recognized by his mother, who lives in the town. He denies he is her son. But soldiers try to seize him. He escapes. The Tartars take his mother prisoner. His pursuers gain on Strogoff. He burns the military plans and keeps only the letter to the Grand Duke. He is captured just as he is about to reach a Russian relief army. The reinforcements are overwhelmed by the Tartars in a full-scale pitched battle. Ogareff gives Zangarra a beautiful string of pearls, telling her she must