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Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood's Russians: Biography of an Image

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This book is a fascinating attempt to explore both how Hollywood constructed Russianness on screen and also how Russian exiles fared in Hollywood. The book contains a wealth of information about émigré actors, composers, producers. It gives a lots of precises of both forgotten silent films and better known movies. It gives a great overview of Hollywood's ruthless treatment of these émigrés and its cynical construction of `foreignness': the US's changing foreign policy is mirrored in the evolving depictions of Russia and its population. The middle chapters are terrific and a pleasure to read.

The book's weakness is its lack of a strong central thesis: how to pull all these disparate snippets, plus a bit of political history, together, into a cohesive whole. It is thesis by default: well it's all sort of Russian. This makes the early and final chapters hard going.

The problem of definition also lets the book down. What, after all, constitutes Russia and Russianness. In this book it is a loose and shifting definition. Perhaps that is inevitable. As an aside, a lot of the people and films eg. Wilder, Lubitsch, whom Robinson claims as Russian, are claimed as German/Austrian by Karen Thomas in her 2008 PBS doco Cinema's Exiles.

Similarly how is Hollywood to be defined. Robinson resolutely and quite reasonably cuts out British films such as Knight without Armour and Demi-Paradise and doesn't even give a footnote to Monty Python's immortal `'effing gondolas'', yet the definition can be expanded to include non US films such as the James Bond franchise and Dr Zhivago when his analysis requires.

"Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood's Russians; a Biography of an Image" by author, Harlow Robinson is actually like the old Wrigley's chewing gum advertisement that had a catchy little tune that started out: "double your pleasure double your fun.. get two ..two gums in one' (or words similar there of).

Harlow Robinson gives the reader two biographical sketches . One biography centers upon the films and imagery of the Russian actors who portrayed certain characters, and then...a biography of the real actor, and the events in his or, her life.

Robinson takes the reader through the various images of Hollywood's portrayal of ..."The Russian'., depending upon the political climate of the time period in which the movie came out. Sometimes Mysterious, sometimes mystical, sometimes seductive, sometimes bold, sometimes a friend, and more often an enemy but always..."A Russian."

I was especially drawn to the biographical sketch of Maria Ouspenskaya who played the role of a gypsy in the 1940 film, "The Wolf man." Here was a woman who grew up in revolution, poverty, illness, death, and still managed to make her indelible mark on the celluloid and silver screens of America in the last 12 years of her life.

Harlow Robinson's infatuation with Russia and the Russians is easily understood, but his knowledge of the subject goes far beyond the reaches of most people like myself. I am still reading this book (don't want it to end), but can tell you it is a book worth having for anyone interested in the history of film making or, the history of Russia.

From Alexander Nevsky to "From Russia with Love", the information presented in this book is as extensive as the steeps of Russia itself.

One of the reasons film is so fascinating is that, perhaps more fully than any other art form, it allows its practitioners to fashion alternative worlds nearly independent of the view. Film (or television) is so vivid and fully realized a fantasy that the viewer's imagination is all but suspended, and full control is handed over to the filmmaker.

This fact is all the more relevant when considering, as Robinson does here, the fascinating history of how Russia has been viewed through American film. Film offers propaganda opportunities unlike any other medium, and how filmmakers have employed this tool can be a telling reflection of political moods, the role of filmmakers vis-a-vis society, and more.

Robinson shows that American filmmakers' portrayals of Russia has been greatly tempered by political events, from uncertainty in the early years, to overeager pollyanism during WWII, to knee jerk antipathy during the Cold War.

This book is rich in detail and full of great production and behind-the-scenes stories. The plots of numerous important films are well-recounted (saving hours of viewing time!), and Robinson's profiles of some of the main "actors" and actors are excellent. Unfortunately, all too few of the films he references are available at the local vid store or via Netflix...