Help?

Just saw a copy of the film on fairly poor-quality VHS, as issued by The New York Film Annex. Version states that it is 'NOT the edited, 1957 re-release', is roughly 97 minutes long and carries an ISBN of 1-55881-538-4. I don't know if the NYFA is still in existence, but if they are, perhaps a copy can be purchased through them. If you have access to academic lending institutions (Interlibrary Loan agencies, etc.), the copy I've just seen was loaned through the University Of Oregon. Again, it is rather poorish quality (there are tracking problems through the first third of the film and, sadly, it is a version with 'American titles' [as stated in the in English-language opening credits] rather than the original Russian ones [including a handful of shots which replace shots of Cyrillic print with new shots of English-language print] and with perhaps about 40%-60% of the Russian spoken dialogue left unsubtitled [including what are likely some reasonably important lines]), but it is the only home copy I've been able to track down and, having just watched it, it really is quite an amazing film, and very much worth the search. I hope this helps you in finding it.

Best of luck,
Marc-David Jacobs


P.S. The IMDb trivia mentions, very tersely, that this is 'the first Soviet sound film' or something to this effect. The back cover of the video box of the above copy states that the film is 'Noteworthy not only as ONE OF [emphasis mine] the first Russian sound films but also one of the most creative sound films ever made, employing the new medium to further plot and characterisation.' Does anyone have any input on which is the correct statement? Both seem rather off-handedly considered. I know that Novïy Vavilon of 1929 (two years before Putyovka v zhizn) was still silent and completely intertitled, so it seems likely that the latter was certainly at least one of the first Russian sounds films. But the first? Anybody?