The Red Dance
The Red Dance (also known as The Red Dancer of Moscow) is a 1928 American film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell that was inspired in the novel by Henry Leyford Gates. Although silent, it was released with synchronized music and sound effects.[3]
The Red Dance | |
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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 |
Music by | Erno Rapee S.L. Rothafel |
Cinematography | Charles G. Clarke Jack A. Marta |
Edited by | Louis R. Loeffler |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Box office | $1.3 million[2] |
Plot
Tasia (Dolores del Río), a beautiful lower class dancer from Russia, falls for the heir to the throne Prince, Grand Duke Eugene (Charles Farrell), but only admires him from a distance. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the Duke falls in captivity and this allows Tasia be near him.
Cast
- 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)
Critical reception
"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]
References
- "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 19 April 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: 59.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Red Dance. |
- The Red Dance on IMDb
- Synopsis at AllMovie
- Lobby poster
- Stills at silenthollywood.com