And yet I liked it! Leslie Howard can give any part in any film dignity - this one proves it! And Kay Francis can make any man seem appealing - again, Leslie Howard proves it! Take that Scarlet O'Hara!
Howard plays, Stephen Locke, a British diplomat, in the last days of Czarist Russia and the first days of Communist Russia. He meets Elena Moura (Kay Francis) when she runs into the British embassy with the Cossacks in hot pursuit since she is a Bolshevik. And also because she was shooting at them. Locke shields her from harm as the consulate is British soil.
They meet again after the revolution when Stephen tries to convince the new Soviet government not to make a separate peace with Germany. But Elena tells her comrades that Stephen is just an unofficial representative, and therefore Stephen is ignored and Russia does make peace apart from the Allies Meanwhile, Stephen and Eleana fall in love. Why I don't know because Eleana keeps telling her bosses all that she knows about Stephen. Egads this could get embarrassing if this is a compulsion of hers!
So then some diplomat friends of Stephen come to him about a plan to arm the White Army against the newly found Soviet government, the hope being that any new Russian government will rejoin the war. Meanwhile Elena still loves her country AND Communism AND Stephen AND still has these troublesome tattle tale qualities.
This has got to be the most pro-Soviet film Hollywood produced prior to WWII when they went wholesale propaganda on the subject during the war years. Lenin is clearly portrayed as a hero. Kay Francis tells us that the emotion she feels for Lenin is "reverence." Lenin's recovery from an assassination attempt is a cause for rejoicing. The Soviet official in charge of tracing down opponents of the regime says that some call it terror, but it's what has to be done. I interpreted that line as a defense of Stalin's policies in the 1930s.
The historical background is more accurate and detailed than most Hollywood films, with Howard articulating the reasons the Allies were concerned about Russia's withdrawal from the war. Also, both leads managed to be annoying characters without annoying me, the viewer. William Gargan's character, on the other hand, annoyed me tremendously. Why must every American abroad in a 1930s film sound like he should be running a lunch counter in the Bronx?
