The Queen of Spades: Vintage Classics (1949)

One of the most evocative and sinister British horror films ever made, Thorold Dickinson's (Gaslight, The Next of Kin) ghostly chiller The Queen Of Spades is released on DVD and Blu-ray 23rd January 2023 from StudioCanal as part of their Vintage Classics collection

Starring Dame Edith Evans (Tom Jones, The Whisperers) in a role that marked her return to cinema following 35 years devoted to theatre work alongside Anton Walbrook (The Red Shoes, Gaslight) and Yvonne Mitchell (The Divided Heart), The Queen Of Spades is based on a short ghost story by celebrated Russian author Alexander Pushkin, and is considered legendary filmmaker Thorold Dickinson's most accomplished piece of work. Dickinson was only hired after the original director was fired just a few days before production was due to start, making his achievement even more remarkable.

St. Petersburg, 1806. Army officer Herman Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) has become obsessed with playing cards, particularly the game of Faro, where the Queen of Spades is considered an unlucky card. On stumbling upon a mysterious book about the secrets of a notorious Count, Herman becomes convinced that the elderly Countess Ranevskaya (Edith Evans) possesses the secret of winning every game.

Desperate to learn the secret for himself, Herman devises a plan to gain access to her house by seducing her young Ward, Lizaveta (Yvonne Mitchell). The plan goes awry when Herman accidently startles the Countess, leading to her death. At the Countess's funeral, Herman comes to pay his respects, but when he leans over her open coffin, her eyes open and he lets out a howl of fear. From this point, Herman finds himself drawn into a satanic world of madness and mayhem as he is haunted by the Countess and the curse of the Queen of Spades.

With Otto Heller's (The Ladykillers, Peeping Tom) eerie cinematography and exquisite sound design contributing to the atmosphere created in the film, The Queen Of Spades is a rarely seen gem and warrants up Scorsese's claim that it is "One of the few true classics of supernatural cinema".

Please note - Disc special features are subject to change, may differ from format to format and/or may differ from region to region.