The Red Dance (also known as The Red Dancer of Moscow) is a 1928 American synchronized sound film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell that was inspired by the novel by Henry Leyford Gates. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.[3]
| The Red Dance | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Raoul Walsh |
| Written by | Malcolm Stuart Boylan Eleanor Browne |
| Based on | The Red Dancer of Moscow by Henry Leyford Gates |
| Starring | Dolores del Río Charles Farrell Ivan Linow |
| Cinematography | Charles G. Clarke Jack A. Marta |
| Edited by | Louis R. Loeffler |
| Music by | Erno Rapee S.L. Rothafel |
| Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Sound (Synchronized) (English Intertitles) |
| Box office | $1.3 million[2] |
Plot
editTasia, a beautiful lower-class dancer from Russia, falls for the heir to the throne Prince, Grand Duke Eugene, but only admires him from a distance. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the Duke falls in captivity and this allows Tasia to be near him.
Cast
edit- Dolores del Río as Tasia
- Charles Farrell as Grand Duke Eugene
- Ivan Linow as Ivan Petroff
- Boris Charsky as An agitator
- Dorothy Revier as Princess Varvara
- Andrés de Segurola as General Tanaroff
- Demetrius Alexis as Rasputin
- Henry Armetta as Prisoner (uncredited)
- Nigel De Brulier as Bishop (uncredited)
- Soledad Jiménez as Tasia's Mother (uncredited)
- Muriel McCormac as Tasia as a child (uncredited)
- Barry Norton as Rasputin's Assassin (uncredited)
- Magda Sonja as Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Music
editThe film featured a theme song entitled "Someday, Somewhere (We'll Meet Again)" which was composed by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack.
Critical reception
edit
"There is a good deal of lethargy about the opening chapters of this offering, but interest picks up in the latter passages", wrote Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times. "There are some good scenes in this somewhat wild piece of work, but it is often incoherent."[4] Variety singled out Ivan Linow's performance for praise and reported that the scenes of the uprising were successful, but "otherwise there wasn't much to direct in this story except to keep it going."[5] Oliver Claxton of The New Yorker panned the film, writing, "how anybody with the slightest modicum of intelligence could fashion such a tale is beyond me....a little criticism would shoot the film so full of holes that it would resemble a Swiss cheese without the cheese. The odor, I am afraid, would still remain."[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "The Broadway Parade". Film Daily. New York: 3. July 9, 1928.
- ^ Quigley Publishing Company "The All Time Best Sellers", International Motion Picture Almanac 1937-38 (1938) p. 942, accessed April 19, 2014
- ^ Progressive Silent Film List: The Red Dance at silentera.com
- ^ Hall, Mordaunt (June 26, 1928). "Movie Review – The Red Dance". The New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ^ "The Red Dance". Variety. New York: 14. June 27, 1928.
- ^ Claxton, Oliver (July 7, 1928). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. p. 59.
External links
edit
- The Red Dance at IMDb
- The Red Dance is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Synopsis at AllMovie
- Stills at silenthollywood.com
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