THE COSSACKS (1928)

Character actor Ernest Torrence had his best role as a big brute of a father disappointed by a lily-livered son he can barely recognize as his own flesh & blood, a tender-hearted lad who’ll never be tough enough to take his place when the time comes.  The son?  Buster Keaton.  The film?  STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.; released May 1928.  The upshot?  The boy plenty tough; saving the day for his proud Old Man! (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/12/steamboat-bill-jr-1928.html)  And here, in theaters less than a month later, the exact same character arc, but with John Gilbert as the weakling who needs toughening up.  With Tolstoy’s novel supplying a few narrative elements (Gogol’s TARAS BULBA might have done the same), it’s a huge romantic spectacle with ginormous action sequences of horseflesh, sword play & massed armies where furry-hatted Orthodox Christians take on the Heathen Turk in the Russian outback.  Both films underperformed, but if only one now seems a masterpiece, this late John Gilbert silent is still good fun.  And better than that in some stupendous action set pieces likely handled by original director George W. Hill.  Apparently, Clarence Brown was brought in to rework much of the personal drama* which sees Gilbert becoming fierce & manly earlier than initially planned (the change now the climax of Act One); pleasing Dad in their on-going war against the infidels; wooing lady love Renée Adorée against dilettante Moscow emissary Nils Asther; stepping into Papa’s shoes & drinking his vodka rations.  Brown aims for beery comradery among the simple, hearty, good-natured warrior men, but the light-hearted tone palls next to scenes of Turkish torture and lethal battle that make up the third act.  Still a fun watch, but the sum less than the parts.  Happily a Turner Classics edition has the film in near mint condition, with an amusing newly commissioned score from Robert Israel heavy on Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker to ‘Little Russian’ & Manfred Symphonies).  Next year, Gilbert returned to Tolstoy for his first Talkie, REDEMPTION/’30, bad enough to be held back for release as his second.  He’d never recover.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Brown’s reshoot squeezed in between two of his finest films out that same year: TRAIL OF’98 and A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-trail-of-98-1928.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Attention to our poster which is a paperback Tie-In from the period.  ‘Tolstoi’ would be proud!  M-G-M would keep the royalties.