Miss Mend: An Adventure Serial in Three Parts

Flicker Alley, in collaboration with Blackhawk Films and Turner Classic Movies, is proud to present the astonishing Miss Mend, a 1926 three-part serial / adventure film from Soviet directors Boris Barnet and Fedor Ozep. Widely regarded by the official Soviet press of the time as a prime example of shameless “Western-style” entertainment, the serial was nevertheless hugely popular, becoming one of the most successful Soviet films of the 1920s. Miss Mend is an energetic, fast-moving serial which opens a window on the phenomenon of Soviet Americanism and reveals a little-known side of early Soviet cinema.

Miss Mend, an action-packed adventure serial in three feature-length episodes, was produced in Russia with the goal of rivaling, and possibly even surpassing, the most entertaining American movies of the 1920s. Instead of the avant-garde works of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, Russian audiences were enchanted by fast-moving American films starring serial queens like Pearl White, swashbuckling heroes like Douglas Fairbanks, and comedians from the Keystone Cops to Lloyd, Keaton, and Chaplin. Miss Mend meets them all head-on and hardly stops for breath. It features beautiful location photography, impressive stunt scenes; horse, car and boat chases, radio towers, jazz bands and even a spectacular train wreck, interspersed with visual references to German film classics like Nosferatu, Caligari and Dr. Mabuse. The film’s heroine, Vivian Mend, is an elegant urban professional who earns her own living and raises a child without the help of any man. But the film, partially set in an imagined America where everything is new and progressive (from technology to social relations and lifestyles) also includes a few more-than-pointed comments on labor relations, racism, excessive wealth, gratuitous violence, and sexual assault.

This new edition was mastered in high definition from superb original 35mm elements produced by David Shepard and Jeffery Masino, with digital restoration and editing being carried out by Eric Lange of Lobster Films, Paris.

BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:

• Miss Mend: A Whirlwind Vision of an Imagined America - A brand new, 25-minute documentary exploring the creative forces and cultural influences behind Miss Mend.
  
• The Music Behind Miss Mend: The Invisible Orchestra - Go behind the scenes of Robert Israel’s brilliant new score in a 15-minute documentary featuring the actual Miss Mend recording sessions.
  
• "Miss Mend and Soviet Americanism" - A new booklet essay by historians Ana Olenina and Maxim Pozdorovkin.