The Queen of Spades (Yakov Protazanov, 1916)

7/10
An hour-long silent Russian film from 1916, I downloaded this on a whim from a torrent website years ago and only got around to it now. It tells the story of a man named German, lifelong abstainer from gambling, who hears that his friend's grandmother somehow gained access to a power that tells her which 3 cards are going to be played next. Despite being warned that the secret carries some kind of curse or consequence, German can't ignore the obvious money-making potential in this secret and seeks out the grandmother, using her lonely granddaughter to get to her. Comeuppance, of course, ensues. It's a pretty neat little movie, although it drags in the middle. The expressive piano score is excellent and the special effects are still pretty cool despite the film being almost a century old.