This overlooked little gem from director Raoul Walsh is a compelling
melodrama that offers an authentic portrait of pre-revolutionary
Russia. Lionel Barrymore plays the sinister villain of the piece
with an evident gusto, his blustering avuncular charm adding a creepy
lustre to the abject venality of his character. Elissa Landi's
performance is perhaps a little too theatrical to make her heroine
totally convincing, although she looks good and has an effective
on-screen rapport with her co-star, Laurence Olivier, who is impressive
in his second Hollywood feature.
Based on the well-known play by Michael Morton, The Yellow Ticket benefits from its
atmospheric chiaroscuro cinematography, which prefigures film noir and
clearly owes something to German expressionism (particularly the
chilling prison sequences). Walsh successfully builds the
tension to a highly suspenseful denouement, employing the same
techniques that he would use to even greater effect in his subsequent
noir thrillers.
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Next Raoul Walsh film: Hello, Sister! (1933)
Film Synopsis
1913. With Europe on the brink of war, revolutionary tensions are
starting to build in Russia. Jewish Russians are segregated, kept
in closed settlements and denied the papers that allow them to travel
freely across the country. When she learns that her father is
dying in a St Petersburg prison, a Jewish peasant girl named Marya
Kalish resolves to join him. When she is turned down for a
passport, she has no choice but to buy a yellow ticket, a special pass
issued only to women of low repute. Marya arrives in St
Petersburg too late. She blames her father's death on Baron
Andrey, the ruthless head of the Tsar's secret police, who makes a
clumsy attempt to seduce her. Back in Moscow, Marya meets Julian
Rolphe, a British journalist who has been duped into believing that
Russia is a healthier nation than it is. Marya's first hand
testimony of how Jews are treated and what life is like in the prisons
inspire Rolphe to begin writing a series of critical articles.
Realising the threat Rolphe now poses, Baron Andrey decides that he
must be eliminated, along with Marya...
Script: Guy Bolton, Jules Furthman, Michael Morton (play)
Cinematographer: James Wong Howe
Music: Carli Elinor, R.H. Bassett, Hugo Friedhofer
Cast: Elissa Landi (Marya Kalish),
Lionel Barrymore (Baron Igor Andreeff),
Laurence Olivier (Julian Rolfe),
Walter Byron (Count Nikolai),
Arnold Korff (Grandfather Kalish),
Mischa Auer (Melchior),
Edwin Maxwell (Police Agent Boligoff),
Rita La Roy (Fania Rubinstein),
Oscar Apfel (British Embassy Butler),
Emile Chautard (Headwaiter),
Gilbert Emery (Sir Hubert),
Esther Howard (Prisoner),
Boris Karloff (Drunken Orderly),
Henry Kolker (Passport Clerk),
Ann Kunde (Prison Matron),
Ivan Linow (Wrestler),
Michael Mark (Baron's Secretary),
Alex Melesh (Police Agent),
Edmund Mortimer (Man in Club),
Sarah Padden (Mother Kalish)
Country: USA
Language: English
Support: Black and White
Runtime: 88 min
Aka:The Yellow Passport
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