The Cossacks

The Cossacks (1928)

Stirring romance, hard riding, desperate fighting with the Cossacks playing their game of war and chivalry. A mighty picturization of Count Leo Tolstoi's famous novel of the same name.

Date of release
1928-06-23
TMDB
7.4 / 10 (9)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Drama
Director
George W. Hill

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Cossacks

The Cossacks is a 1928 American silent drama film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and directed by George Hill and Clarence Brown. Due to the public apathy towards silent films, a sound version was also prepared. While the sound version has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film stars John Gilbert and Renée Adorée and is based on the 1863 novel The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy.

Production

The Cossacks was beset with problems due to MGM executives requesting various script changes during filming. Frances Marion, who wrote the screenplay, became frustrated by the numerous requests and later said she "lost track of what the story was really about and the material seemed frayed on all edges." The film's stars, John Gilbert and Renée Adorée, complained about the numerous rewrites and felt their roles were "not worthy".

Before filming completed, George W. Hill requested that he be removed as director as he did not like the film's subject matter and had tired of Gilbert and Adorée's complaints. Clarence Brown was then hired to reshoot several scenes and ultimately completed the film.

Among the many extras used in The Cossacks were members of a "Dijigit Troupe" of over 100 genuine Russian Cossacks, who in 1926 came to the United States from Europe after performing equestrian exhibitions and traditional Cossack musical and dance shows in various cities in France and England.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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