The Queen of Spades1949
“Passionate... Exciting... Intriguing... He bartered his soul for the SECRET of the cards!”
Directed by Thorold Dickinson
On the charts
🏆 Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award3 nominations total
The premise
A czarist captain stops at nothing to learn the secrets of a countess rumored to have sold her soul to the devil in order to always win at cards.
Horror Vault's take
In the shadowy world of Imperial Russia, an ambitious military officer becomes dangerously fixated on an aged countess said to possess an unbeatable secret at the card table — one allegedly purchased from the devil himself. His obsession drives him to increasingly desperate and sinister measures to extract her forbidden knowledge. Steeped in gothic atmosphere and moral decay, this British adaptation of Pushkin's classic tale builds to a genuinely unsettling reckoning. The stark black-and-white photography gives the film a haunted, dreamlike quality that lingers long after the credits roll.
Content: Psychological Menace, Supernatural Imagery, Themes Of Coercion And Obsession
Cast
Anton Walbrook
Capt. Herman Suvorin
Edith Evans
The Old Countess Ranevskaya
Yvonne Mitchell
Lizavetta Ivanova
Ronald Howard
Andrei
Mary Jerrold
Old Varvarushka
Anthony Dawson
Fyodor
Miles Malleson
Tchybukin
Michael Medwin
Hovaisky
Athene Seyler
Princess Ivashin
Ivor Barnard
Bookseller
Aubrey Mallalieu
Fedya
Maroussia Dimitrevitch
Gypsy Singer
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