Flicker Alley, The Blackhawk Films Collection, and Turner Classic Movies present the astonishing Miss Mend, a 1926 three-part serial / adventure film from Soviet directors Boris Barnet and Fedor Ozep
Bruce Calvert
Movies present the astonishing Miss Mend, a 1926 three-part serial /
adventure film from Soviet directors Boris Barnet and Fedor Ozep
Contact: Jeff Masino, 800 - 936 -1115, jeff(at)flickeralley.com
Flicker Alley, The Blackhawk Films Collection, and Turner Classic
Movies present the astonishing Miss Mend, a 1926 three-part serial /
adventure film from Soviet directors Boris Barnet and Fedor Ozep.
Miss Mend makes its home video premiere on Tuesday, Dec.15th
Los Angeles, CA— Flicker Alley, a specialty supplier of fine silent
films and classic cinema programming, in collaboration with The
Blackhawk Films Collection and Turner Classic Movies, proudly present
the American video premiere of epic Soviet serial adventure, Miss
Mend.
Produced in the Soviet Union in 1926, but inspired by American movie
cliffhangers of the day, this three-part, 4 ½ hour film was directed
by Fedor Ozep and Boris Barnet (who is also featured in the cast).
Based on the 1923 pulp novel “Mess Mend”, both the film and its source
material share an interestingly “Westernized” pedigree; though the
novel claims to have been authored and published by an American scribe
“Jim Dollar,” the fictional persona is actually a nom-de-plume for a
Russian woman, Marietta Shaginian, whose biography for Dollar explains
that he was a laborer who fell by sheer chance into tremendous fortune
and publishes his fiction at his own expense.
Regarded by the official Soviet press of the time as a prime example
of shameless "Western-style" entertainment, Miss Mend was nevertheless
hugely popular, becoming one of the most successful Soviet films of
the decade. Though you’ll find no tractors, capitalist oppression, or
revolution, the film does manage a few jokes at the American
characters’ ’ expense.
Co-director Boris Barnet, actor, ex-boxer, and a graduate of the
Kuleshov School, directed other notable silent films including The
Girl With the Hatbox and The House on Trubnaya Square; his career
extended to the mid-1960s with his most notable sound film being
Outskirts (1933). Fedor Ozep, also a screenwriter, emigrated from the
Soviet Union. In Germany, he directed a wonderful version of
Tolstoy's The Living Corpse and The Murder of Dmitri Karamazov, making
later films in France, and finishing his long career as a Hollywood
director.
Mastered in high definition from superb 35mm elements, with a 'dream
cast' of 1920s Soviet film stars, Miss Mend pits a cadre of
proletarian sleuths against a villainous gang of selfish capitalists,
each side boasting its own collection of zany sidekicks, everything
from a streetwise urchin to a Typhoid dog. The film also features
beautiful location photography, impressive stunt scenes, horse, car
and boat chases, and stylized sets inspired by Fritz Lang's German
thrillers.
MISS MEND is accompanied by a newly-recorded large-orchestra score by
Robert Israel. Soviet culture specialists Ana Oleniva and Maxim
Pozdorovkin wrote the new English intertitles as well as a booklet
essay, "Miss Mend and Soviet Americanism" and a new 25-minute
documentary, Miss Mend: A Whirlwind Vision of Imagined America.
Creating the Music of Miss Mend is a behind-the-scenes look at Robert
Israel's recording sessions in the Czech Republic. This edition was
produced by David Shepard and Jeffery Masino, with digital restoration
and editing carried out by Eric Lange of Lobster Films, Paris.
Miss Mend is the ninth DVD title to be released through the
partnership of Film Preservation Associates’ Blackhawk Films
Collection and Flicker Alley, following Discovering Cinema, Saved From
The Flames, Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), Abel
Gance’s La Roue, Perils of the New Land: Films of the Immigrant
Experience (1910-1915), Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer, Under
Full Sail – Silent Cinema on the High Seas, and Bardelys The
Magnificent / Monte Cristo.
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWK FILMS COLLECTION
Blackhawk Films was founded in 1927 as a producer of film advertising
for merchants and as a distributor of regional newsreels. The company
made its mark as a nontheatrical distributor with the advent of 16mm
sound film in 1933, establishing several regional offices before WWII.
In 1947, Blackhawk expanded into sales of used film and soon
thereafter began distributing new 8mm and 16mm prints of Laurel &
Hardy comedies from Hal Roach Studios as well as titles from such
other suppliers such as Fox Movietone, Killiam Shows, and National
Telefilm Associates. David Shepard joined Blackhawk as Vice President
(1973-1976) and after founding Film Preservation Associates in 1986,
acquired the Blackhawk Films library which now comprises some 5,000
titles.
ABOUT FLICKER ALLEY
Flicker Alley, LLC was founded in 2002 by Jeff Masino. Each Flicker
Alley project is the culmination of hundreds of hours of research,
digital restoration, and music production. Flicker Alley has partnered
with Turner Classic Movies on several historic cable broadcasts
including three previously unavailable silent films produced by Howard
Hughes, three rarely seen Rudolph Valentino films and new digital
editions of J’Accuse and La Roue, by Abel Gance. The Flicker Alley
brand has grown to enjoy national and international critical acclaim
and is regularly featured in annual "Best Of" lists. Twice, the
company has been honored with the prestigious Il Cinema Ritrovato DVD
Award: In 2008 for George Melies - First Wizard of Cinema, and again
in 2009 for Douglas Fairbanks - A Modern Musketeer. In 2009, the
company was a Heritage Award recipient by the National Society of Film
Critics.
Flicker Alley titles are available in North America directly through
Flicker Alley (www.flickeralley.com) and through online retailers such
as Amazon.com (www.amazon.com). Wholesale orders are handled by
Emphasis Entertainment Group, Inc. (ast...@aol.com). For
institutional sales please contact Gartenberg Media Enterprises
(gart...@nyc.rr.com).
--
Bruce Calvert
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com