Mikhail Pugovkin Movies

In this stylish reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, the Russian filmmakers stripped the book down to its essence while also devising comic subplots that are not in the original work. Prince Florizel (Oleg Dal), a ruler of some small fictional Middle-European country, finds his stay in London extremely boring. Every night he and his buddy Colonel Geraldine (Igor Dmitriev) go out looking for some adventures and excitement. One night they find themselves under the spell of a suicidal painter who leads them to The Suicide Club, run by the shadowy 'Chairman' (Donatas Banionis). The rules of the Suicide Club are simple: the members, all well-bred citizens with a penchant for death, decide the murderer and victim from a draw of the cards. The Chairman quickly and ruthlessly dispatches with those who do not want to abide by the rules and soon the prince finds himself sucked into real danger. ~ All Movie Guide

This Russian film accurately retells the famous Hans Christian Anderson story about a mermaid who saves a young prince from her sisters death-calls, and falls in love with him. After many trials, the prince is able to live and love, and the mermaid is freed to walk on land, but the prince marries a land princess, and the mermaid walks alone. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide