THE END OF ST. PETERSBURG
starring Aleksandr Chistyakov
PHOTOPLAY
August 1928
Arthur Hammerstein brought this new film from the Soviet Moscow Studios to New York. See the editorial pages for Photoplay's judgment. Shows the collapse of the Romanoff regime and the quick flop of Kerensky rule. Ends with the shelling of the Winter Palace and the dawn of the Soviet. Pudowkin, the director, has a remarkable pictorial sense. Film is told in jerky, newsreel style of "Potemkin." Striking technique and remarkable portrayals of peasants by peasants.
Excerpt from editorial by editor James R. Quirk in the same issue:
Don't let the ravings of motion picture critics fool you on the art in foreign pictures. "The End of St. Petersburg," for instance, a new Russian picture produced by the soviet government and brought out in New York recently with much ado about the Russian cinematic art. Applesauce.
It was just a mess of symbolic rot and disconnected shots. It has a motive, but not a motif. The motive was pure soviet propaganda and, cleverly enough, ended with the overthrow of the Kerensky regime and the promise of a better day.
It is not entertainment and, with the exception of the pitiful character of Kerensky, it does not pretend to show historical figures. It is a sad film.