''The Iron Heel'' (russian: Железная пята, Zheleznaya pyata) is a 1919 Soviet

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

directed by

Vladimir Gardin Vladimir Rostislavovich Gardin (russian: Влади́мир Ростисла́вович Га́рдин) (born Vladimir Rostislavovich Blagonravov (Благонра́вов); – 28 May 1965) was a pioneering Russian film director and actor who ...

. It is based on

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

's 1908 novel ''

The Iron Heel ''The Iron Heel'' is a political novel in the form of science fiction by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Kershaw, Alex. ''Jack London: A Life''. London: HarperCollins, 1997: 164. Background The main premise of the book i ...

''.Christie & Taylor p.440 The main theme of London's book was the rise of a mass Socialist movement in the United States, with the potential to take power and implement a radical Socialist program, and its suppression by a well-organized coup of conservative Oligarchs. This had direct relevance to the situation in Russia at the time when the film was made, when the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

was still raging and the newly created Soviet regime, born of the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, was still threatened by the counter-revolutionary White armies.

Cast

* Olga Bonus * Anatoli Gorchilin *

Aleksandra Khokhlova Aleksandra Sergeyevna Khokhlova (born Alexandra Sergeyevna Botkina, russian: Александра Сергеевна Хохлова, 4 October 1897 – 22 August 1985) was a Soviet actress, theatre director, writer, and educator. Biography ...

* Ivan Khudoleyev *

Leonid Leonidov Leonid Mironovich Leonidov (, – 6 August 1941) was a Russian and Soviet actor, director and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1936). Biography Born ''Leonid Meyerovich Volfenzon'' () in a Jewish family in Odessa, he worked in the Moscow ...

* Olga Preobrazhenskaya * Nina Shaternikova * Nikolai Znamensky

References

Bibliography

* Christie, Ian & Taylor, Richard. ''The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896–1939''. Routledge, 2012.

External links

* 1919 films Soviet silent films 1910s Russian-language films Films based on works by Jack London Films directed by Vladimir Gardin Films based on science fiction novels Soviet black-and-white films Films based on American novels {{1910s-USSR-film-stub