Word: boatman
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...Volga Boatman. Cecil B. DeMille, whose name has become synonymous with ridiculous excesses in bathtubs and flappers, has turned to Russia. He has taken the seething horrors of the Russian Revolution and turned them into a pale pink romance that will give you the fidgets. The Boatman of the title falls in love with the Princess, and the Princess falls foul of the wicked soldiers. The picture is often rescued by sets and photography of startling beauty...
Fenway--"The Volga Boatman" and "Forbidden Waters...
...study in contrasts is Cecil B. DeMille's "The Volga Boatman," now showing at the Fenway. In this, and in many other respects, the film is typical of De Mille's technique as a director. His scene is Russia in 1917, his theme the strife between the blue-blooded aristocrats and the Russian Reds. It is a film showing all of DeMille's excellences and all his defects. The scenario was written by a Rumanian, Konrad Bercovici, and its original motive is the song of the same name, made famous in this country by the Chauve Souris. Incidently the song...
...director of "The Ten Commandments" succeeds pretty well in keeping in the background the revolution, and concentrates his plot upon the three main characters a prince, a princess, and a boatman. For once there are no gold bathtubs, and panorama effects give way to close-ups as the emotions of the three principles are pictured...
This the up-turn caused by the revolution, is the powerful theme that makes "The Volga Boatman" worth while. Still there are obvious defects. Especially noticeable is De Mille's over-emphasis of symbolisms. It is all right to show occasional close-ups of isolated parts of the body. But one does become tired of hundreds of feet devoted to nothing but showing first the wornout boots of the peasants on the tow-path, and later the dainty ankles of the aristocrats in the same position. Then, too, there are endless shots of hands to bring out the contrast between...