The Red Dance (1928)
Directed by Raoul Walsh

Film Review

If you can forgive The Red Dance its outrageously far-fetched plot and the fact that it is has only the flimsiest of connection with actual historical events, it is possible to enjoy it for what it really is, a feisty crowd-pleasing romp.  Competently directed by Raoul Walsh, one of the most prolific and successful of Hollywood filmmakers, the film was a suitably flamboyant vehicle for Dolores del Rio and Charles Farrell, two of the biggest stars of the silent era.  Walsh had previously worked with Del Rio on What Price Glory  (1926) and The Loves of Carmen (1927); he would later direct Farrell in The Man Who Came Back (1931) and Salomy Jane (1932).

The Red Dance is one of the most overlooked of Raoul Walsh's films, and it is not too hard to see why.  The script is appalling and there is not a single cliché, nor toe-curling platitude, that gets overlooked in its attempt to come up with the most fanciful interpretation of the Russian Revolution ever.  Yet, whilst the film does look pretty lame when compared with Walsh's other great silent films and his later sound masterpieces, it does occasionally impress with a few inspired moments.  The overhead shot of prisoners walking like zombies down a circular staircase into what looks like an infernal pit is the film's most striking image, matched in visual impact only by the dramatic sequences depicting the revolution as a mad orgy of chaos and destruction.  There are also a few fine comedic touches, such as the scene in the barber's shop (which incidentally doubles as a dentist's), where the creepily likeable villain Petroff mistakes aftershave for vodka, with predictable results.

Anyone who is looking for an accurate (or even semi-) accurate account of the Russian Revolution is unlikely to be impressed by the eccentric comicbook fantasy that The Red Dance serves up.  The revolutionaries are portrayed as sadistic schemers and drunken oafs; Rasputin (here referred to as the Black Monk) is actively working to destroy the Tsar; and the three main protagonists (a duke, a dancer and a vagabond) clearly have no idea which side they are on, or indeed what they are doing.  Ivan Petroff switches allegiances as easily as he might flick a light switch, and the happy ending is arrived at by the most facile of plot contrivances.  Still, we should remember that The Red Dance was intended not to inform and educate but to entertain, and it does that well enough, particularly if you are an ardent fan of the Mexican beauty Dolores Del Rio.

Film Synopsis

In pre-revolutionary Russia, the Grand Duke Eugen is recalled from the eastern front of WWI and tasked with exposing the forces that are working to destroy the power of the Tsar.  He must marry the Princess Varvara, not knowing that by doing so he will become implicated in a dangerous game of politics.  By chance, Eugen meets and falls in love with Tasia, a beautiful young dancer who is maltreated by her adopted family whilst her father, a teacher, languishes in prison.  Tasia was to have married Ivan Petroff, a rustic lout, but he is so busy getting drunk that he misses the wedding.  As the revolution gets underway, Petroff quickly rises to the rank of general whilst Tasia becomes a well-known dancer.  To prove her loyalty to the revolutionary cause, Tasia must undertake a special mission: to assassinate the Grand Duke Eugen.  But how can she bring herself to kill the man she loves...?