The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

     Lev Kuleshov's The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1925) is an unclassifiable Russian silent comedy about a Babbit-like American duped by anti-Communist scalawags during a visit to Moscow. He finally sees the Marxist light, and writes to his wife back home, "Dear Madge, hang a portrait of Lenin in the studio." His sidekick for the trip is a rowdy cowpoke, who brings to starchy Soviet cinema unexpected primitive, two-fisted, "B"-movie brawling.

GERALD PEARY
(July, 2001)

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