That Dangerous Age
This romantic drama by Russian writer Ilya Surguchev, a sad, quiet tale in the style of Chekhov, of love, disillusionment, and hope, was apparently the favorite genre of Russian-born director Gregory Ratoff. It was a play that Ratoff had wanted to film back in the 1930s, when he was at Fox Studio, but didn't get around to it till he was working in Europe in 1949. Since Surguchev's story had begun as a Russian stage play at the Moscow Art Theater (1915), it is likely that the young actor Ratoff was aware of it even before both Ratoff and author Surguchev had emigrated from Russia after the Communist Revolution. Surguchev's original Russian play in 1915 bore the title "Autumn Violins" ("Osennie skripki"), a title which may have puzzled English audiences. (Hence Ratoff's '49 British film was retitled "That Dangerous Age.") French audiences, on the other hand, might have been content with the original title, because author Surguchev took that title "Autumn Violins" from a French poem by Paul Verlaine, which translates as "Sobs of autumn violins wound my heart with a languid monotony..." Surguchev, by the way, has sometimes been misspelled as 'Illa Sugutchoff', but in time let's hope that will be corrected. Written by Prof Steven P Hill, Russian & Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.
