Moscow Nights (1935 film)

Moscow Nights (released as I Stand Condemned in the United States) is a 1935 British drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Laurence Olivier, Penelope Dudley-Ward and Harry Baur. The screenplay concerns a wounded officer who falls in love with his nurse.

Moscow Nights
Directed byAnthony Asquith
Written byErich Seipmann
Anthony Asquith
Based onan unpublished novel by Pierre Benoît
Produced byAlexis Granowsky
StarringLaurence Olivier
Penelope Dudley-Ward
Harry Baur
CinematographyPhilip Tannura
Edited byFrancis D. Lyon
Music byMuir Mathieson
Production
companies
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release date
6 November 1935
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Based on a novel by Pierre Benoit, it is a remake of the 1934 French film of the same title. Harry Baur was the only actor to reprise his role from the original. It was shot at Denham and Isleworth Studios, both controlled by Alexander Korda's London Films.[1] The film's sets were designed by the art director Vincent Korda. It was released in the United States by United Artists.

Plot summary

During the First World War a wounded Russian officer Captain Ignatoff falls in love with his nurse. Matters are complicated by the fact that she is already engaged to a wealthy merchant.[2][3]

Cast

Critical response

Writing for The Spectator in 1935, Graham Greene called the film "completely bogus", and "the worst, as well as the most ballyhooed, film of the year". Asquith and Dudley-Ward were criticized in particular, with Greene describing Asquith's direction as puerile, and Dudley-Ward's acting as "country-house charades". Although Greene praised the acting from the rest of the film's stars, and noted that Asquith's past direction had been characterized by trickery, he commented that "now [Asquith's] bag of tricks seems empty".[4]

References
  1. Wood p.87
  2. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027989/
  3. BFI.org
  4. Greene, Graham (15 November 1935). "Last Love/Moscow Nights/Oil for the Lamps of China". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. pp. 35–36. ISBN 0192812866.)

Bibliography
  • Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
  • Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.


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