Main Cast: Colin Blakely, David Suchet, Carroll Baker, Ian Hogg, Nigel Stock
Release Year: 1983
Country: UK
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
Presented in a series of ostensibly farcical or irreverent episodes without any particular connection to each other, and based on short stories written by Yuri Krotkov's own personal knowledge of Stalin, the Red Monarch sketches the infamous Russian dictator as something of a buffoon suffering under the responsibilities of total power. Stalin's many purges of "undesirables" that amounted to millions dead by the end of his reign are not mentioned, and Beria, the chief of the Secret Police (NKVD) responsible for those deaths, is presented in his other notorious persona, that of a vulgar skirt-chasing lecher. Episodes cover a meeting of the Politburo to go over the USSR's loss at a major basketball tournament, and an arm-wrestling context with Mao Zedong. No matter how well Colin Blakely portrays Stalin, he cannot overcome the aspects of the script that trivialize Stalin's criminal record in this failed attempt at a Mel Brooks-style comedy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Gary White - First Assistant Director, Jack Gold - Director, Laurence Méry-Clark - Editor, David Puttnam - Executive Producer, Norman Garwood - Production Designer, Mike Fash - Cinematographer, Graham Benson - Producer, David Puttnam - Producer, Charles Wood - Screenwriter, Yuri Krotkov - Short Story Author
Red Monarch is a dark comedy based on The Red Monarch: Scenes From the Life of Stalin a collection of sartirical short stories by the Russian author Yuri Krotkov. The film is an insight into Soviet politics and the interplay between Stalin and his lieutenants, particularly Beria, during the last years of Stalin's rule. The Soviet rulers represent the "the banality of evil" as the lives of countless ordinary Russians are destroyed by the buffoonery of Stalin and his cronies. The reading of Yevgeny Yevtushenko's "The Heirs of Stalin" [1] in the final scene warns that the threat of totalitarianism is constantly present.
