THE USUAL SYLLABUS for a class in Soviet silent cinema starts with Eisenstein and ends with Vertov. But as this sterling new release from Flicker Alley proves, Soviet filmmakers were as seduced by the pell-mell American style as they were by didactic montage. Miss Mend, a long (285 minute) three-parter from 1926, directed by Boris Barnet and Fedor Ozep, happily borrows from the American adventure serial for a chase-filled, slapstick-rich tale. The obvious connection is from the eponymous heroine (a feisty typist played by intensely staring Natalya Glan) to Pearl White, but despite the title, Vivian Mend is just one character among many and hardly the main focus of the film’s breathless narrative.
The convoluted story begins in America with a strike at “Rocfeller & Co.” that mobilizes the consciousness of Miss Mend and a trio of male admirers: a reporter, a photographer and a factory clerk. It soon turns out that a cabal of nefarious capitalists, under the command of the villainous Chiche (Sergei Komarov), is plotting to use radio transmitters to release a deadly gas in the Soviet Union. The narrative grows increasingly tangled with dual identities, a murdered industrialist, a plague-infested ship and a final showdown in Russia.
Keeping up with the plot is a fool’s errand, but the pace is breakneck. The directors often extend dramatic action sequences and chase scenes to the point of comic absurdity. Occasionally, the film undercuts whatever pro-worker, anti-capitalist message it wants to impart with lowbrow jokes. The reporter, stymied at the Russian shore by a quarantine, fusses, “I came all this way to save Russian, and I get stopped by an enema.” As is usually the case, the bad guys shine. In the best scenes, Chiche and company don weird rubbery gas masks with sinister floppy proboscises and conduct deadly tests on their nefarious poison gas. Some sharp dialogue helps; early on, a newspaper editor calls in his reporter and snaps out an assignment: “There’s a strike at the cork factory. You’ve got 40 minutes, for 40 lines. The pay is $40. Be sure to show the noble CEO and the heroic policeman.” This handsome package comes with a historical documentary and an illustrated booklet.
MISS MEND; two discs; Flicker Alley; $39.95
