October 15, 2009

Flicker Alley, The Blackhawk Films Collection, and Turner Classic Movies present the astonishing Miss Mend, a 1926 three-part serial / adventure film from Soviet directors Boris Barnet and Fedor Ozep.

Miss Mend makes its home video premiere on Tuesday, Dec.15th

Los Angeles, CA— Flicker Alley, a specialty supplier of fine silent films and classic cinema programming, in collaboration with The Blackhawk Films Collection and Turner Classic Movies, proudly present the American video premiere of epic Soviet serial adventure, Miss Mend.

Produced in the Soviet Union in 1926, but inspired by American movie cliffhangers of the day, this three-part, 4 ½ hour film was directed by Fedor Ozep and Boris Barnet (who is also featured in the cast).

Based on the 1923 pulp novel “Mess Mend”, both the film and its source material share an interestingly “Westernized” pedigree; though the novel claims to have been authored and published by an American scribe “Jim Dollar,” the fictional persona is actually a nom-de-plume for a Russian woman, Marietta Shaginian, whose biography for Dollar explains that he was a laborer who fell by sheer chance into tremendous fortune and publishes his fiction at his own expense.

Regarded by the official Soviet press of the time as a prime example of shameless "Western-style" entertainment, Miss Mend was nevertheless hugely popular, becoming one of the most successful Soviet films of the decade. Though you’ll find no tractors, capitalist oppression, or revolution, the film does manage a few jokes at the American characters’ expense.

Co-director Boris Barnet, actor, ex-boxer, and a graduate of the Kuleshov School, directed other notable silent films including The Girl With the Hatbox and The House on Trubnaya Square; his career extended to the mid-1960s with his most notable sound film being Outskirts (1933). Fedor Ozep, also a screenwriter, emigrated from the Soviet Union. In Germany, he directed a wonderful version of Tolstoy's The Living Corpse and The Murder of Dmitri Karamazov, making later films in France, and finishing his long career as a Hollywood director.

Mastered in high definition from superb 35mm elements, with a 'dream cast' of 1920s Soviet film stars, Miss Mend pits a cadre of proletarian sleuths against a villainous gang of selfish capitalists, each side boasting its own collection of zany sidekicks, everything from a streetwise urchin to a Typhoid dog. The film also features beautiful location photography, impressive stunt scenes, horse, car and boat chases, and stylized sets inspired by Fritz Lang's German thrillers.

Miss Mend is accompanied by a newly-recorded large-orchestra score by Robert Israel. Soviet culture specialists Ana Oleniva and Maxim Pozdorovkin wrote the new English intertitles as well as a booklet essay, "Miss Mend and Soviet Americanism" and a new 25-minute documentary, Miss Mend: A Whirlwind Vision of Imagined America. Creating the Music of Miss Mend is a behind-the-scenes look at Robert Israel's recording sessions in the Czech Republic. This edition was produced by David Shepard and Jeffery Masino, with digital restoration and editing carried out by Eric Lange of Lobster Films, Paris.

Miss Mend is the ninth DVD title to be released through the partnership of Film Preservation Associates’ Blackhawk Films Collection and Flicker Alley, following Discovering Cinema, Saved From The Flames, Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), Abel Gance’s La Roue, Perils of the New Land: Films of the Immigrant Experience (1910-1915), Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer, Under Full Sail – Silent Cinema on the High Seas, and Bardelys The Magnificent / Monte Cristo.

ABOUT THE BLACKHAWK FILMS COLLECTION
Blackhawk Films was founded in 1927 as a producer of film advertising for merchants and as a distributor of regional newsreels. The company made its mark as a nontheatrical distributor with the advent of 16mm sound film in 1933, establishing several regional offices before WWII. In 1947, Blackhawk expanded into sales of used film and soon thereafter began distributing new 8mm and 16mm prints of Laurel & Hardy comedies from Hal Roach Studios as well as titles from such other suppliers such as Fox Movietone, Killiam Shows, and National Telefilm Associates. David Shepard joined Blackhawk as Vice President (1973-1976) and after founding Film Preservation Associates in 1986, acquired the Blackhawk Films library which now comprises some 5,000 titles.

ABOUT LOBSTER FILMS
Lobster Films Studios was founded in 1985 by friends Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange out of their passion for movies and moving images. The Lobster Films Collection has grown over the years to represent more than 20,000 films – over 1200 hours of moving images – including feature films, silent films, newsreels and documentaries, much of it from the first few decades of motion pictures. Lobster has a visionary preservation program, saving and preserving film from nitrate deterioration. In 2008, the company spearheaded the launch of the European Film Treasures on-line archive and recently (along with Film Preservation Associates) has partnered with Flicker Alley on several highly regarded home video and broadcast projects.

ABOUT FLICKER ALLEY
Flicker Alley, LLC was founded in 2002 by Jeff Masino. Each Flicker Alley project is the culmination of hundreds of hours of research, digital restoration, and music production. Flicker Alley has partnered with Turner Classic Movies on several historic cable broadcasts including three previously unavailable silent films produced by Howard Hughes, three rarely seen Rudolph Valentino films and new digital editions of J’Accuse and La Roue, by Abel Gance. Flicker Alley is the proud recipient of the National Society of Film Critics’ 2008 Film Heritage Award and the 2008 Willy Haas Award. For more information, please visitwww.flickeralley.com.

Flicker Alley titles are available in North America directly through Flicker Alley (www.flickeralley.com) and through online retailers such as Amazon.com (www.amazon.com). Wholesale orders are handled by Emphasis Entertainment Group, Inc. (astrutz@aol.com). For institutional sales please contact Gartenberg Media Enterprises (gartmedia@nyc.rr.com).