Pushkin's tale of human greed and superhuman trickery, as translated by Thorold Dickinson to the British screen, is "a wonderfully florid exercise in bizarre fantasy and stylish horror" (W.K. Everson), costumed to the point of irony (augmented by a delicious use of sound, e.g. the rustling gown), filmed with an Ophulsian fluidity of camera, and cast with an excellent array of actors. Anton Walbrook is the hard-working Herman Suvorin who seeks a safe system with which to indulge in the "gambling fever" of 1806 St. Petersburg; Dame Edith Evans is the wonderfully resourceful, infinitely wrinkled old Countess Ranevskaya who, rumor has it, has already sold her soul for the secret to the system, and drives a horrible bargain for its release. (JB)