SOAPBOX - The Queen of Spades

15 April 2010
Venue: Grosvenor Museum, Chester

Unavailable theatrically for many years, this forgotten classic from the underrated British director Thorold Dickinson is an eerie chiller based on the short story by Pushkin.

Tickets £6/£4, book online, call 0843 208 0500, or call into Chester Tourist Information Centre

It is 1806 and Imperial Russia and St Petersburg are in the grip of gambling fever. No card strikes more fear into the hearts of the soldiers than the evil Queen of Spades. Captain Herman Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) is a lowly German engineer: an outsider obsessed with making his fortune, whose peculiar manner isolates him from the revelries of the other bawdy soldiers. He is intrigued, though, by the soldiers' gossip that tells of the legend of an ancient Countess, who supposedly sold her soul to the devil years before in exchange for the secret of success at the card game de jour: faro.

This is a masterly tale of the supernatural, filmed with visual boldness and great style and offers a wonderful chance to see one of Britain's great ghost stories on the big screen.

The film has been hailed as a masterpiece by Martin Scorsese who has filmed a special introduction to the film for this new release.

"An exotic, fascinating film." ∗∗∗∗ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian FULL REVIEW