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The Marriage of the Bear
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Wikipedia article
'The Marriage of the Bear' (aka 'The Bear's Wedding'Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 283. .) is a 1925 Soviet silent horror-fantasy drama film directed by Konstantin Eggert and Vladimir Gardin.Bawden p.649 It is based on the play with the same name by Anatoli Lunacharsky, which in turn was based on Prosper Mrime's novella 'Lokis' (Lithuanian for "bear").
Prosper Mrime wrote a number of bizarre, macabre stories, of which 'Lokis' is one. He was also the author of 'La Venus d'Ille' which Italian horror director Mario Bava adapted to film in 1978. The Russian silent film with its lycanthropic theme predates Universal's later werewolf films, such as 'The Werewolf of London' (1935) and 'The Wolf Man' (1941). But with prints of this film almost impossible to view (although it is said to still exist in a couple of archives), it's difficult to determine if the "man-into-beast" scenes of the film refers to a literal shapeshifter, or if it's just a psychological condition that affects the main character's mind. Critic Troy Howarth calls it "possibly the first depiction of a man-into-beast scenario (in a horror film)".Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 283. .
The film was remade in 1971 as 'Lokis' by Polish director Janusz Majewski, and again in 1975 as 'The Beast' by Polish auteur Walerian Borowczyk.Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 283. . The film's sets were designed by the art director Vladimir Yegorov.
Plot
When a pregnant Russian countess is frightened by a bear, she later gives birth to a male child who acts in some ways like an animal. As the boys matures, he takes to stalking young women in the forest while wearing the skin of a bear. When he becomes an adult, the boy marries a young girl and appears to be normal. But on their honeymoon, he turns into a bear and murders his wife, drinking her blood. But it's not clear whether the transformation is real, or if the young man just believes he is a bear and is acting like one.
Cast
* Konstantin Eggert
* Vera Malinovskaya as Yulka
* B. Afonin
* Varvara Alyokhina as Old Adelina
* Alexander Geirot
* Aleksandra Kartseva as Adelina Shemet
* Galina Kravchenko
* Olga Lenskaya
*
* M. Rozenstein
* N. Stal
* Nikolai Vitovtov
* Vladimir Vladislavskiy
* Ye. Volkonskaya
* Yuri Zavadsky as Olgert
References
Bibliography
* Liz-Anne Bawden. 'The Oxford companion to film'. Oxford University Press, 1976.
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