Customer Reviews

Miss Mend

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Of all the products issued by Flicker Alley, MISS MEND is certainly the most unusual so far. Intended by the Soviets as a satire of Western style entertainment, this movie has a little something for every silent film fan from the French serials of Feuillade to the American cliffhangers of Pearl White and Helen Holmes. Throw in a little Fritz Lang for good measure and you have a unique offering that can't quite seem to make up its mind as to what it wants to be. It starts off as a protest film with our heroine, a lowly typist, getting involved in a worker's strike at the "Rocfeller" plant. Three "intrepid" journalists enter the fray each one pining after the heroine. We are then introduced to an engineer who is more than he seems at first and a cute little boy with a dark secret. Finally we meet the nefarious villain, Chiche, a demented capitalist who will stop at nothing to destroy Soviet Russia. This he hopes to accomplish through an early form of germ warfare. Can our heroine/heroes stop him in time? Stretch this out over 4 hours and you have a film that remains fascinating to watch although it can be hard to follow.

Flicker Alley & Co. have done their usual fine job in bringing another silent offering to us. The film, transferred from 35mm material, looks very good especially considering its obscurity (it was panned by Soviet critics for incorporating the very things it was poking fun at although the masses loved it). I may have run across it in a reference book but if I did, I don't recall it so I am delighted to become acquainted with another title that I'm unfamiliar with. The movie has been given new English intertitles and is accompanied by another fine score from Robert Israel. Part of the fun for me is listening for the classical music and popular music of the day quotations that he uses. While I can't imagine people lining up to buy the DVD (even silent film enthusiasts), it is like all Flicker Alley offerings, a quality release worthy of our time and the extra cost. Just don't expect BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN or MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA or even THE PERILS OF PAULINE. This 2 DVD set also comes with a 15 page booklet that gives you the complete lowdown on the film and "Soviet Americanism".

In one of the most unusual hybrids of the silent era, Soviet filmmakers attempted to fuse American filmic dynamism with anti-capitalist rhetoric, and then threw in elements of German expressionism for good measure. The end result was 1926's "Miss Mend," a three-part, four-hour plus long serial chronicling the adventures of a quartet of Americans who unravel a diabolical scheme to destroy Bolshevism. Their investigations take them from America to the newly established USSR where the plot reaches its climax and resolution.
This film is notable for its depiction of 1920s America through a Soviet lens. More than one-half of the film unfolds in a U.S. replicated in Russia, a land of worker unrest, virulent racism and power-mad capitalists looking to destroy the Soviet workers' paradise. Interestingly, all of "Miss Mend's" protagonists are Americans, including the eponymous heroine, Vivian Mend, a typist for a company who ends up siding with striking workers at the film's start. She comes to the attention of a four rival suitors: brawny reporter Barnet (played by former boxer and co-director Boris Barnet); the slightly peevish photographer Vogel; buffoonish Tom Hopkins, a clerk at the company where Miss Mend works; and Engineer Johnson, a character who is not all that he seems.
All of the actors do a commendable job handling the numerous chases and fight scenes the plotline demands of them. The character who registers the most is the central villain, Chiche. Hovering somewhere between Dr. Caligari and Dr. Mabuse, the twisted and seemingly leprous Chiche intends to use a terrifying bacteriological weapon to destroy the Soviet Union, and is not above killing children to achieve his ends.
Such dark material is intermixed with much lighter fare, and presents the film with its underlying problem: a largely inconsistent tone. Reviewers of the period complained that the film attempted too much all at once, striving to be farcical, exciting and critical in equal measures. An example of this is the marked contrast between two scenes dealing with race. One scene involving an African American worker's murder coolly dismissed by the police is handled with striking sensitively. This is followed up by a later scene in which a newly disrobed Tom Hopkins covers his body in soot and then bounds along a bustling avenue dressed in only his undergarments. The reason for his bizarre decision is not fully explained and does not fully qualify as a critique of the use of blackface in American cinema.
Despite such missteps, Miss Mend is always engaging and improves as it moves along. It makes a fascinating companion piece to Fritz Lang's "Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler" from 1922. Both epics deal with master criminals using economic leverage to succeed in their diabolical schemes, but Lang's work contains a depth of characterization and mastery of technique that the Russian film does not quite match. It does feature some splendid footage of Leningrad's streets and waterfront locations.
As has been the case in earlier releases, Flicker Alley does a consummate job with its restoration and inclusion of accompanying materials, including two documentaries (one placing "Miss Mend" within a historical context, the other on the recording sessions of Israel's music) and a fifteen-page booklet. Robert Israel again proves himself to be one of the titans of silent film composing with an excpetional score that alternates between jaunty orchestral pieces and moody organ compositions. For connoisseurs of pulpy serials of the 1920s and anyone interested in Soviet films produced in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Miss Mend is well worth the investment. I imagine it is a film that offers ample rewards upon subsequent viewings.

In what has been a recent desert of rather uninteresting and uninspired classic film releases - boxed sets of classic films that are no more than repackaged stock, bare-bones DVD-R's at thirty dollars a pop, rereleases of the same old films with maybe one extra feature, etc. there have been a few gems pop up here and there. For example, there is the excellent silent Charlie Chase set, and now a Soviet dime-store novel as silent serial - Miss Mend. Not for those of short attention spans, this one clocks in at four plus hours in three parts. Made in Russia in 1926, it has to do with the heroine - Miss Mend - and her associates trying to stop a biological weapon attack on the Soviet Union planned by American businessmen. Before the stock market crash I guess they still had money to finance such gadgets.

The Soviet authorities didn't like the film because they thought it was too American in its sensational theme and pace, but it was very popular with Russian filmgoers. As mentioned in the press release "Though you'll find no tractors, capitalist oppression, or revolution, the film does manage a few jokes at the American characters' expense."

Bonus Features:
Miss Mend: A Whirlwind Vision of an Imagined America - A brand new, 25-minute documentary exploring the creative forces and cultural influences behind Miss Mend
Creating The Music of Miss Mend: Go behind the scenes of Robert Israel's brilliant new score in a new, 15-minute documentary featuring the actual Miss Mend recording sessions
Miss Mend and Soviet Americanism - A new booklet essay by historians Ana Olenina and Maxim Pozdorovkin

Some viewers might balk when they read that "Miss Mend" is a Soviet production, especially if the Avant Garde style by Eisenstein and Pudovkin (ie, Battleship Potemkin, Earth, End of St Petersburg, to name a few) are not much to their liking, but it would be a great loss to pass over "Miss Mend" for this reason. As it happens, the average Russian audience in the 1920s gravitated towards the action-adventure genre of American films and serials, preferring fun entertainment to highbrow culture, and although the above-mentioned Avant Garde films are artistic masterpieces deserving of praise and recognition, it is the American-style film that made a hit at the Soviet box-offices. It is therefore no surprise that prominent Soviet filmmakers Boris Barnet (writer) and Fedor Ozep (director) decided to make a serial to rival, if not even surpass, the popular American style, and "Miss Mend" is the successful result of this undertaking.

"Miss Mend" has the perfect balance of all the elements needed to make an entertaining movie: action, drama and suspense keeping up a constant fast pace, satire and irresistible humour thrown in at the best and often most unpredictable moments, all with the consistently brilliant photography of beautiful scenery, city and streetscapes and impressive portrait shots of the main stars, who radiate a distinct quality of strong character and individuality. It is also full of "Americanisms" - with the leading characters actually being American, and obviously imitating American film styles, but with a fun sense of irony and satire so that nothing about Miss Mend can be taken seriously, and therefore can be enjoyed by audiences on both sides of the former `iron curtain'.

Teaming up with a reporter (Boris Barnet who also wrote and co-directed Miss Mend) and photographer Fogel, Miss Mend finds herself caught up in a complicated conspiracy, the murder of a powerful businessman, and a plot to use biological warfare. There are car chases, trains and fist fights, but also some darker moments involving Miss Mend's nephew whom she takes care of by herself since the murder of her sister, as well as her ill-fated romance with a man who turns out to be the enemy she is after. While the overall effect is that "Miss Mend" is not at all a typical American film or serial, it is obvious that it doesn't really pretend or intend to be, and therein perhaps lies its success.

Adding to all these winning qualities is the picture quality of this Flicker Alley DVD which is exceptionally good throughout, and is brilliantly supported by a superb orchestral score by Robert Israel. A booklet of informative notes adds the finishing touch. For me personally, "Miss Mend" takes an important place in my silent Soviet film section, and it would surely be of great interest to many serious cinema aficionados as well.

In what has been a recent desert of rather uninteresting and uninspired classic film releases - boxed sets of classic films that are no more than repackaged stock, bare-bones DVD-R's at thirty dollars a pop, rereleases of the same old films with maybe one extra feature, etc. there have been a few gems pop up here and there. For example, there is the excellent silent Charlie Chase set, and now a Soviet dime-store novel as silent serial - Miss Mend. Not for those of short attention spans, this one clocks in at four plus hours in three parts. Made in Russia in 1926, it has to do with the heroine - Miss Mend - and her associates trying to stop a biological weapon attack on the Soviet Union planned by American businessmen. Before the stock market crash I guess they still had money to finance such gadgets.

The Soviet authorities didn't like the film because they thought it was too American in its sensational theme and pace, but it was very popular with Russian filmgoers. As mentioned in the press release "Though you'll find no tractors, capitalist oppression, or revolution, the film does manage a few jokes at the American characters' expense."

Bonus Features:
Miss Mend: A Whirlwind Vision of an Imagined America - A brand new, 25-minute documentary exploring the creative forces and cultural influences behind Miss Mend
Creating The Music of Miss Mend: Go behind the scenes of Robert Israel's brilliant new score in a new, 15-minute documentary featuring the actual Miss Mend recording sessions
Miss Mend and Soviet Americanism - A new booklet essay by historians Ana Olenina and Maxim Pozdorovkin