The Girl in the Kremlin (1957) User Reviews (11)

Dumb...but also a film you cannot stop watching!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 February 2024]

"The Girl in the Kremlin" has a ridiculous premise...not quite as ridiculous as "They Saved Hitler's Brain"...but close! It seems that although it was announced to the world that Stalin died of a stroke in 1953, he did, according to this silly story, actually live on by substituting one of his doubles and then having plastic surgery! He did this, apparently, because he knew a purge was coming...and this time it was coming for him!

Despite the notion of Stalin surviving and, perhaps, one day trying to return to power being ridiculous, the film tries very hard to play it straight....and making it seem only 99% ridiculous instead of 100% ridiculous. The only trouble I had with this kitschy film was the ending...as the death scene didn't make any sense at all. See it...see what I mean.

Cheap And Paranoid

[boblipton · 4/10 · 19 September 2023]

The movie starts in the Kremlin in 1953, where Joseph Stalin (played by Maurice Manson) indulges in his fetish by watching a woman having her head shaved. He then undergoes plastic surgery, watches the people gathering to mourning his death, has the doctor who performed the surgery shot, and then vanishes from the story. For a while, anyway.

In Berlin, former OSS agent and PI Lex Barker tries to gives Zsa Zsa Gabor her money back. She hired him to track down her sister, but never mentioned that she was working in the Kremlin. After she offers him more money, he goes back to work, and decides that Stalin is still alive. But where? There's spy stuff.

I strongly suspect this is an updating of an unproduced script for just after the War, in which Hitler has been replaced by Stalin. It's strictly cheap fare from producer Albert Zugsmith, and the only names I recognize are William Schallert as Stalin's son, and DP Carl Guthrie.

"The devil has gone back to hell."

[moons0522 · 5/10 · 23 November 2023]

I saw this film on a double Universal-International bill with "The Deadly Mantis" in May, 1957 which was the reason my friend, Bobby Shortle and I went. I was thoroughly confused at age ten as to what I was watching. I was shocked at seeing the girl have her blonde hair shaved. I have seen it since on YouTube in a nice print for free and also notice it has been released on Blue Ray DVD. It is an odd film, not a bad one, but has to be viewed in the context of the Cold War era. But the only reason for me to write this review is because of the ending. As a Catholic lad in 1957 I was shocked when Lex barker uttered the words: "The devil has gone back to hell!" This was said after the car driven by William Schallert who was shot by Maurice Manson (Stalin) , careened over a cliff and burst into flames. Needless to say Bobby and I were enthralled more by the antics of the Deadly Mantis much more than "The Girl In The Kremlin." And Lex did not have the problems that Clark Gable had in 1939 when he uttered a similar "bad word." The Legion Of Decency gave this film a B rating (Morally objectionable in parts for all).

Really worth watching...

[searchanddestroy-1 · 24 November 2011]

The two other comments are absolutely right, this is a corny picture, lousy as well. But so good to watch. Anyway, when you read the topic, you can't think of anything else. Not exciting, but totally crazy, delirious...A real grade B or Z movie. And when you are a movie buff like me, you CAN'T miss a film like this. You have not to take it seriously, of course. Just a B picture, don't forget it.

I won't repeat the summary again, as did the other user, but I will just point out that the Stalin's son character is strangely poignant, a real surprise in such a feature. We the audience feel real empathy for him. As we could feel in a grade A and serious film, with great actors.

Trust me, if you can catch it, don't miss it. It's worth.

Count Molda

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 25 March 2017]

In 1957 The Girl From The Kremlin was inflicted on the American movie going public just as the Red Scare was dying down and Joe McCarthy was dying. Just the fact that one of the stars is Zsa Zsa Gabor playing a dual role is enough to tell you this is a camp classic.

Zsa Zsa plays two roles, one as the nurse to none other than Joseph Stalin who faked his own death and had some plastic surgery done. He also absconds with a lot of rubles the better to have a comfortable retirement and maybe even get a plane ticket to Argentina where his old pact pal Hitler is rumored to be.

The nurse's twin sister is worried about sis so she hires Lex Barker private detective and former OSS agent with a few behind the iron curtain contacts.

The gist of it is that some of the toadies in the Kremlin have gotten tired of Stalin's paranoia and are getting more than restless. So Stalin decides to take a powder, maybe come back another day. Though I have to say Maurice Manson doesn't look like he's ready for a comeback as Stalin or his alias Count Molda. He looks like he's enjoying being Count Molda as much as you can with several million people on the planet liking very much to wring your neck.

No one's got any great enthusiasm for this project it looks like. Especially William Schallert playing Stalin's long lost son Jacob. Schallert looks like he's about to heave if he says one more word of the inane dialog.

The Girl In The Kremlin was directed by Russell Birdwell, noted right wing activist in Hollywood and pusher of the blacklist which was starting to crumble. Birdwell was a writer and a publicist and John Wayne made the colossal mistake of having Birdwell in charge of the publicity campaign to gain The Alamo some Oscars. It backfired in titanic fashion, the gist of the campaign was that you were some kind of subversive if you didn't think The Alamo should win best picture.

This film is a cold war dinosaur, bad in spectacular fashion. It's a real hoot.

Strange Cold-War "B" Sadistic Tone...Images of Abuse, Missing Limbs, & Flogging

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 22 September 2023]

Well Known Right-Winger and Studio Publicist, Russell Birdwell, Assisting John Wayne Promoting "The Alamo", Directed this Brutal Exploitation-Propaganda of those Evil Commies.

Dark Tone and Somber Throughout...

It Starts with a Lengthy Scene with Stalin Seated Puffing on a Pipe, Watching a Beautiful Brunette with Waist-Length Hair,

Undergoing a Shaved-Head Haircut. There is No Explanation.

Aside from the Obvious Pleasure of Stalin Getting His Kicks.

Next, it's Off to the Plastic Surgeon for Uncle Joe who is about to Fake His Own Death and High-Tail, with Half of the Soviet Treasury.

Enter Zsa Zsa Gabor in a Dual Role, Searching for Her Identical Twin, Last Seen as Stalin's Nurse in Moscow.

She Hires He-Man Lex Baxter, Ex-OSS and Now a Private Eye, to Find Her Sibling.

When Baxter Discovers that there are "Rumors" of Stalin's Switcheroo, He Joins Zsa Zsa with the Added Bonus, no not Gabor, but a Hefty Down-Payment.

There's Some Intrigue, and with the Help of a One-Armed Secret-Service Agent (Jeff Stone) and a Hiding-Out Son of Stalin (William Schallart) the Hunt is On.

Plenty of Action, Including a Brutal, Bloody Flogging of Baxter. One Gets the Impression that there are also some Deranged and Detached Minds Behind the Camera.

Intense, Low-Low Budget Movie that Delivers the Goods. However Critics and Fans seem to Loathe this Under-Ground Treasure of Sleazy Cinema from a By-Gone Era.

There's a Lot More Here than Meets the Eye.

Say Hello and Good-Bye to America's Little Friend During WWII, Uncle Joe Stalin...

Who Starved Millions of His Countrymen...Because He Could.

Worth a Watch.

Boring

[mls4182 · 1/10 · 19 September 2023]

Poor Natalie Daryll had her head shaved for THIS?

No one watched this film thinking it would be good, but one would think a cold war film with Lex Barker and Zsa Zsa Gabor would least be funny. This is a snooze fest.

The film offers very little by way of camp. A few men escape prosecution by disguising themselv s as nuns but that is it.

The film utilizes a lot of Soviet propaganda film footage to fill time.

One thing this film did well was to make the Universal City back lot look a lot like Bavaria, Germany.

It is a sad fact that Zsa Zsa Gabor is a better actress than Lex Barker is an actor.

Worth Watching

[drthorstenkrings · 7/10 · 18 January 2024]

From today's perspective the film is not as original as it was back in the day as there have been numoerous books and films about Nazis or even Hitler himself escaping, hiding and planning a comeback. The scenairio itself is quite realistic: a faction of the communist party wants to dispose of Stalin, so he fakes his own death and escapes with his inner circle and a lot of money. However, want you want to do with Rubles in the West is beyond me. There is the infamous scene in which a young girl is humiliated by having hair hair cut off on front of Stalin which sems to be his particular fetish. This scene is extremely powerful as it shows what can atually happen if people have absolute power. It's very well acted as you can see that the men get excited by this humiliation and the acting is actually very subtle. Other than that I found the film a bit slow moving.

Cold War films: Shades of propaganda.

[daviuquintultimate · 5/10 · 23 February 2024]

I learn from history books that in 1956 the URSS' Communist Party amply criticized the doings of its former First Secretary, Joseph Stalin, died in 1953. With a perfect timing comes out in 1957 "The Girl in the Kremlin".

Back to the film: well, Stalin is not really dead. He is still alive, and plots to regain his dictatorial powers in a now (1957) slightly changed Soviet Union. This an admissible kern idea for a story for the movies: we were comfortable, to say one, with King Kong's destroying Tokyo... But I won't write about the plot: you can find an outline of it in this same site, or elsewhere. I'd like to focus on some other aspects. Here we go.

Thousands and thousands of films have been made with an underlying propaganda undercurrent, and some are very good. But when the thing is so blatant, with all the Soviets represented ab initio as pure idiots, then we are not there. It's like taking Americans (and the rest of the world of movie-goers) for just as many idiots (there undoubtedly have been many of them, and presumably there are still now), if you expect them to believe this nonsense. Paradoxically, those films, always with underlying propaganda, but serious, which treat the characters - whatever their political position - as human beings, just as a normal member of an audience considers her/himself, have the greatest effect. Assuming that something like a "normal" audience ever existed or will exist.

Powerful Film

[TedMMorgan314 · 10/10 · 21 September 2002]

The first few minutes of this film emerge as one of the most exciting and moving in the history of film. After the haircut, turn off the movie and watch something else. However, don't miss the first minutes of this film. A necessary addition to any collector's library.

Do My Eyes Deceive Me??

[madnomadtoo-84716 · 10/10 · 23 May 2023]

Why does no one mourn the terrible surviving print of this movie? The actors seem to ply their craft through sets flooded with vanilla pudding. I had to ID the characters by movement and relative size.

Most of the time I got it right. Pity.

I saw this movie, fresh out, at the local emporium, right next to the 5-and-dime, just down from the drugstore that served Cokes by squirting syrup in a glass, topping it up with carbonated water and a gentle scoop of ice, with a final vigorous stir of a long spoon. (You got a PAPER straw that usually collapsed before the Coke was finished.) Place had a fancy wooden phone booth. And a shelf of mysterious substances in large glass jars with glass stoppers.

ANYWAY, I digress. As a ten-year-old boy, the opening sequence of this movie showed me that parts of my body were capable of strange and glorious things. That firmly melancholic memory makes me wonder: Does NO ONE possess a better print of this film? Surely a storage box hides in some warehouse, where the ghosts of Lex and Zsa Zsa lament the darkness.

Or, perhaps, some wired wizard, sequestered in Mom's basement, will discover this film from back-in-the-day and, fueled by pizza and Monster, initiate a restoration that will turn back global warming, feed the hungry everywhere, and usher in nuclear disarmament.

Yeah, well ...