The Devil's Wheel

The Devil's Wheel — Plot

Typically of the heady days of early Soviet cinema, this is constructed according to the fast, sharp editing principles advocated by Eisenstein, complete with symbolic inserts; but in terms of subject matter, it's much less explicitly political than most movies emerging from Russia in the '20s. Chronicling a young sailor's descent into a murky, treacherous underworld of pimps and thieves, after having encountered a Louise Brooks lookalike at a fairground and missed his departing boat, it's a lively moral fable that delights in vivid visual effects and quirky characterisations. If the plot occasionally reveals gaping holes, and the tacked-on ending urging the clearance of the Leningrad slums seems to be rather gratuitous, there's enough going on to keep one attentive and amused.

• Release date
• March 15, 1926
• Runtime
• 40 min
• Genres
• Action, Crime
• Director
• Grigori Kozintsev

The Devil's Wheel — Cast

Pyotr Sobolevsky Vanya Shorin, Red fleet sailor Lyudmila Semyonova Valya Sergei Gerasimov The Question Man Emil Gal Koko, vaudeville performer

A

Antonio Tserep Tavern Owner Nikolay Gorodnichev House manager

V

V. Lande Cafe dancer Sergei Martinson Orchestra conductor