The Queen of Spades (DVD)

A gambling craze is sweeping 19th-century St. Petersburg, yet a dashing Russian army captain (Anton Walbrook, The Red Shoes) is too impoverished to participate. But when he learns that an aging countess (Three-time Oscar-nominee Dame Edith Evans, The Whisperers) may hold the ultimate key to gambling riches, the desperate young officer will stop at nothing to steal the sinister secret for himself. When fortunes are won and lost with the turn of a card, will one man wager his very soul on a final twist of fate? Yvonne Mitchell (Demons of the Mind) co-stars in this brilliant British chiller directed by Thorold Dickinson (Gaslight), featuring extraordinary cinematography by Otto Heller (Peeping Tom, The Ipcress File) and based on the celebrated short story by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (The Eagle).