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The Cossacks (1928) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
8.3/10   314 votes
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Director:
Writers:
John Colton (titles)
Frances Marion (adaptation)
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Contact:
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Release Date:
23 June 1928 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Stirring romance, hard riding, desperate fighting with the Cossacks playing their game of war and chivalry. A mighty picturization of Count Leo Tolstoi's famous novel of the same name. more
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
John Gilbert & Renee Adoree, together yet again. more (3 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

John Gilbert ... Lukashka
Renée Adorée ... Maryana
Ernest Torrence ... Ivan
Nils Asther ... Prince Olenin
Paul Hurst ... Sitchi
Dale Fuller ... Ulitka (Maryana's mother)
Mary Alden ... Lukashka's mother
Josephine Borio ... Stepka
Yorke Sherwood ... Uncle Eroshka
Joseph Mari ... Turkish Spy
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Additional Details

Runtime:
100 min | 74 min
Country:
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

FAQ

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful.
John Gilbert & Renee Adoree, together yet again., 4 February 1999
9/10
Author: AnnieP from San Francisco, CA

They made a lot of movies together, and this one is no "Big Parade", but it's worth seeing. The scenery is gorgeous, the wardrobes are great, the humour is as fresh today as it was when they all put on those big fur hats and saddled up.

It's the story of one Cossack leader's son who will not go to war. Lukashka, (Gilbert)loves simply to live - he finds delight in the small things that surround him. He is taunted by his father,and humiliated by the other young men in the village, who (naturally) view war as a rite of passage, and simply the Thing That A Man Does, or he is no man. His childhood sweetheart, Mariana (Adoree)loves him, but being a simple girl, would like it better if he were like the rest.

Taunted beyond bearing, Lukashka wins his scar when men from the neighboring town steal horses under cover of night. Thereafter, the men laud him, the woman make over him, and Mariana, who had her chance, is ignored, but so pointedly that we know he still loves her madly. There is an amusing scene where she runs after him on horseback, echoing the fabulous troop truck scene in "Parade" when she falls in the dust, clutching his shoe.

In the course of the misunderstanding, she is betrothed to an aristocrat; Lukashka comes to find her, but it is too late: she has given her word. A beautiful love scene, making titles unnecessary, ensues, but nothing can change. It is too late. She has given her word, though we can see her heart is breaking.

Terrible things happen before they can be together again. The torture scene is brutal, too realistic for me when I saw it. It seemed his hands WERE burning! It is the vogue to be facile now about silent film, to see the stories as hackneyed because now, after 70 years, we think we have invented sophistication. Pay attention to this story. There is a subtlety that many stories made today miss completely.

This is a good story - it's entertainment, and that was always the point. It's also a chance to see John Gilbert play opposite his most sympathetic leading lady, Renee Adoree, a lovely, wide-hipped girl with magic, at least when she played against him.

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