Song of Russia (1944)

Director:

Gregory Ratoff

Writers:

Leo Mittler (story) &
Victor Trivas (story) ...

Release Date:

February 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Romance | War

Plot Keywords:

Fire | Subway | Priest | Plane Crash | Publicist

Cast

Robert Taylor	...	John Meredith
Susan Peters	...	Nadya Stepanova
John Hodiak	...	Boris Bulganov
Robert Benchley	...	Hank Higgins
Felix Bressart	...	Petrov
Michael Chekhov	...	Ivan Stepanov
Darryl Hickman	...	Peter Bulganov
Jacqueline White	...	Anna Bulganov
Patricia Prest	...	Stasha Bulganov
Joan Lorring	...	Sonia
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Alexander Meschkov
Leo Mostovoy	...	Yanovich
Leo Bulgakov	...	Professor Faber
Zoia Karabanova	...	Natasha Bulganov
Konstantin Shayne	...	Wounded Soldier (as Konstantine Shayne)

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #9484) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This film was the subject of inquiry by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in October 1947. Testimony as to the distortions of Soviet life presented in the film was provided by Ayn Rand, screenwriter and author of "The Fountainhead" and 'Atlas Shrugged". Rand was born in Russia, but left in 1926.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Sleeping Beauty, Op.66

Merry Comrades and Uncle Joe

Thanks to TCM for airing this astounding propaganda film in October 2003. Others have commented on the nearly unbearable Soviet propaganda in the film, but I watched the Stalin-supplied footage with awe as I had never seen most of it before, at least in this quality and quantity.

The story is stock melodrama with the morals that we (America) must support our Russian allies at all costs and that the scorched earth policy is major war strategy.

But through it all is the luminous face of Susan Peters, who was tragically paralyzed two years after this film's release and died in 1952. She is charming, delightful and disarming enough to inspire a whole village as well as the American conductor (Robert Taylor) who falls in love with her. They marry in an unlikely semi-religious ceremony.

The notions that 1.)An American would be invited on a 40-city tour of Russia in early 1941, and 2.)That he would be able to take his Russian bride out of the Soviet Union (after the German invasion!) "for the greater good of Mother Russia," are pure fantasy. The huge symphony orchestras and the vast, aristocratic, jewel-bedecked audiences we see at theatre after theatre are laughably anti-communist, and the men would most likely have been conscripted by that time.

Yet, as films reflect the history of our lives, I found this a fascinating chapter of the very brief period of US/USSR alliance. I'd love to see it again.