Overrated and overhyped

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

A middle ranking soldier in the Russian imperial army is stung in to taking on his superiors at a card game, convincing himself that the secret of success lies in the spooky past of an aristocratic dame. Can he win? And at what cost? Melodrama with a noir feel, which just about qualifies as horror. The photography is outstanding, with light/shadow/angles creating soulful atmosphere, and the director does some great combinations of music and close-ups on old actresses.At first the story is a bit slow and muddled, but it does wind up to an intense climax. The characters don't really matter or say anything true, and the most touching scene is with an extra mourning over a coffin. The actors are good although sometimes stagey - that's the dialogue for you. Also lots of nice touches with minor characters, and I got the feel there was a lot of satire sacrificed for the sake of an underwhelming romance.Music is orchestral, mostly effective, sometimes overblown - but the gypsy singers create an exotic mood + the coffin scene has a mournful hymn.Overall: lots of quality, but script/direction should have been sharper.

I admit,the movie drags a bit in spots for my tastes (I tend to go for slapstick, Monty Python whimsy, and high powered action), but "Queen Of Spades" was a very well done tale of destiny and doom. The nature of the story lends itself to a much shorter "Tales From The Crypt/"Dead of Night" anthology feature if needed (in fact, I can see that it has been done this way), but the heft and quality of the direction, acting and set designs have filled out the potentially "sketchy" parts into something compelling.The protagonist, especially as played by the actor, is an unsympathetic and unappealing mix of coldness, ambition, ruthlessness and envy...and yet you can't entirely blame him, as Life seems to have dealt him a pretty harsh hand. And whatever his faults and schemes, it turns out that his seeming scheme to seduce the ingénue is really a cover for the chance to beg or force a magical secret out of the girl's aunt. (So he's a scoundrel, but not a cad".) When things go wrong, it's not really his fault (although he is directly responsible for at least one death, it's more manslaughter than murder).So watching him get his comeuppance is not a particularly comfortable process - most of us can see a little of ourselves in the character as he is depicted here, and we can easily imagine ourselves in the same predicament if Fate were to single us out to doom us with our own character flaws. We agreed that for a film made in 1949, the movie felt much "older", and I, for one, completely forgot that I was watching a bunch of Brits portraying 19th century era Russians until the credits rolled. And that the movie managed to be really creepy when it wanted to be.Not for every taste, but worth your time if you like Pushkin, Russians, British cinema or slow-burn tales of the supernatural.

Any other version of Alexander Pushkin's short story classic The Queen of Spades, that isn't one of the brilliant Tchaikovsky opera, has to be really outstanding to beat this film, which is often considered the definitive version. And it's easy to see why. The costumes and sets are very handsome and the cinematography is sumptuous while also brilliantly having an ominous effect. The score from Georges Auric, who also wrote the score for 1946's La Belle et La Bete (another classic), is haunting without ever being obvious or intrusive(in fact a lot of it is a large part of what makes the atmosphere so effective). While Thorold Dickinson directs with a more than sure hand, there are some imaginative touches and he allows the atmosphere to really speak, a good thing considering that it is a ghost story, and the dialogue is intelligently written and easy to understand while respectful to Pushkin. The story is hugely compelling, yes it is a slow-burner(which is not a hindrance at all, the film was unlikely to be as effective otherwise), but the spooky atmosphere and the high levels of suspense make the film's best scenes chill the blood even now. In particular the card scene, a scene that you'd be hard pressed to find a better one on film. The acting is spot on, especially from Anton Walbrook, who gives perhaps a career best performance, and a heavily made up(and effectively) Edith Evans- looking deliberately older than her years- who is terrifying and tormented. Yvonne Mitchell is an affecting Liza and I haven't seen Ronald Howard more endearingly sensitive than here. All in all, beautiful and chilling both as an adaptation of a classic and as a film in general, one of the best and maybe most under-appreciated in the genre. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Along with Hammer studios,I've been trying to find and view more British Horror films.Thankfully,I recently discovered on the IMDb Film Noir board a huge amount of praise,for a dark,atmospheric UK movie,which seems to have almost been completely forgotten in British Horror history.The plot:Keeping up a tradition of standing in the corner and never partaking in a game of cards,Tsarist Captain Suvorin begins to contemplate on how he can grip all of the "falling" cash being spent by the gang of card players.Shortly after getting hold of some small change,Suvorin discovers a previously hidden book which details a number of deals that people have done with an alleged "devil",who along with helping the willing soul to achieve their desire's,also makes model figurines for the participant's souls to be stored in after their deaths. Finding out of a party being held by reclusive Countess Ranevskya,Suvorin quickly learns that Ranevskya is infamous for having turned her luck around and winning a huge amount of cash from a card game decades ago,before retiring to become extremely reclusive.Feeling that Ranevskya's life weirdly mirrors a chapter in the book,about a woman selling her soul to the devil so that she can win a card game,and secretly put all of the money that she had stolen from her husband "back in its place".Suvorin starts to try getting the attention of Ranevskya's family,in the hope of getting close to the Countess and finding out how she scored such a devilish winning handView on the film:For their absolutely stunning adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's short story,screenwriters Rodney Ackland and Arthur Boys have Ranevskya's past dark dealings be something that slowly manifestation's into Suvorin,as he goes from just wanting to put his friends noses out of place,to being desperate to holding the key of the "dark arts".Placing the movie in a dark,almost Dickens Gothic setting, (with Countess Ranevskya sometimes looking like the sister of Miss Havisham!)director Thorold Dickinson brilliantly uses disjointed sound effects to show Suvorin's obsession breaking his reality apart,whilst also using complex,but perfectly executed camera moves to greatly increase the mysteriousness of the surrounding,and also turning the card games into truly tense,nail-biting scenes.Along with the strong directing,and Otto Heller's chillingly moody,low-lit cinematography,Anton Walbrook gives an excellent performance as Suvorin,who Walbrook shows to be a man that is never truly easy in his own skin,and always has an ulterior motive hidden under his sleeve.