Luch smerti

Obscure Kuleshov film seems to be nothing special at first sight. Another workers' revolt crushed by owner and the 'fascists' - eerily sporting impeccable military attire and swastikas but probably intended to be White Russians.

Another viewer has commented this is an effort to turn Hollywood adventure on its head as propaganda; I believe it's the other way around, an attempt to indulge the sheer pleasure of making movies under the pretext of propaganda.

Fistfights, gunfights, secret passage-ways, secret plans, secret codes, mysterious figures, car chases - including a man hopping on a moving car - , a death ray device, poisoned cigarettes, conspiratorial meetings, dangerous last-minute escapes, the film is replete with all the characteristics of the old serials, and the same vivid comic-book tone, but is of course at the same time, as if lampooning ideological fervor, about workers struggling against ruthless class enemies.

So it makes some sense that it was received poorly by critics at the time and attacked by the more radical Eisenstein, who demanded collision with the eye, and that Kuleshov got in trouble with Goskino, since the spirited revolutionary effort is reduced to shenanigans from movies.

I believe it was solely conceived as a workshop exercise with brickwork appropriated from older films, typically inane, and moved around to explore possibilities of space and rhythm within individual scenes. There are some marvellous aerial shots and a rugged fight in a swamp for possession of the ray. This raw physicality pays off in spades in Kuleshov's followup, there brooded over the disintegration of the mind.

Last reel is considered lost, so we don't really get to see the ray in action.

Workers in a factory in an unnamed 'western' country rebel when they learn that production is to begin on shells to be used against their brother workers in Venezuela. In response, the company's capitalist boss and the leader of a local fascist organisation (Leonid Obolensky) plan on goading the workers to riot and then attacking them from the air. In the meantime, agents from both sides are searching for the 'death ray', a weapon capable of detonating fuel at a distance developed by a Russian inventor (Porfiri Podobed). The disjointed and fast moving adventure is hard to follow (not helped by the limited and awkwardly translated English intertitles on the version I watched or by the fact that the end of the film are missing (sadly, the extant film ends just as the 'death ray' is about to be deployed)). Similar to contemporaneous American action films (which director Lev Kuleshov admits he was imitating) , there is lots of daring-do including chases, fisticuffs, stunts, and gun fights - all quite well done (albeit a bit long at times). Interspersed with the wild action scenes are numerous closeups of interesting (and very non-glamorous) looking people including Kuleshov's wife Aleksandra Khokhlova in a duel role (one being a circus trick shot!). Despite sporting non-Hollywood teeth, Khokhlova has a memorable, kinetic face and her introductory shot, with her long and tangled hair being teased by a pair of blow dryers, is fascinating. Because of the titular McGuffin, the film is considered an example of early Soviet science fiction but there is virtually no science involved - the 'death ray', which fits inside a small suitcase, is never explained and is only seen in action once (although presumably it was central to the lost climactic footage). Luch smerti was not very popular when released and was criticized for being too Western and not sufficiently doctrinaire. Although some of the imagery is excellent (the gun fight in the dark room for example) the film (or at least the existing copy) is confusing and repetitive, and will likely only interest scholars or aficionados of the early years of cinema. The Soviet censors were not fans of the frivolous and fanciful, and there would not be another science fiction film made in Russia until the magnificent 'Kosmicheskiy reys' in 1936.

The owners of the "Helios" factory, from an unspecified capitalist country (the signs in that country are in botched French, though) oppress the workers. A clash, with uncertain outcomes, therefore arises between these proletarians - who have a connection with Soviet Union - and the fascio-clerical elite of the place, clash which has as its core the "death ray" conceived by professor Podobed from Moscow.

Don't frown: we already know that a lot of American movies, too, and maybe very good ones, have been based on propaganda, only in the contrary direction.

Back to the film.

Quite fuzzy. And also a little bit boring. A less "Soviet" and more relaxed and sensible montage would have made it possible to understand (better) what happens in the film, and would have earned for it (at least) one higher mark in my very personal rating.