The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
Film poster
Directed by	Lev Kuleshov
Written by	Nikolai Aseyev Vsevolod Pudovkin
Starring	Porfiri Podobed Boris Barnet Aleksandra Khokhlova Vsevolod Pudovkin
Music by	1980s re-release: Benedict Mason
Cinematography	Aleksandr Levitsky
Edited by	Aleksandr Levitsky
Release date	April 27, 1924
Running time	94 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Silent, Russian and English intertitles

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Russian: Необычайные приключения мистера Веста в стране Большевиков, translit. Neobychainye priklyucheniya mistera Vesta v strane bolshevikov) is a 1924 comedy film by Soviet director Lev Kuleshov. It is notable as the first Soviet film that explicitly challenges American stereotypes about Soviet Russia.

The film is a broad satire of American ignorance of the Soviet Union.

The naive American, Mr. John West, played by Porfori Podobed as a Harold Lloyd type (complete with enormous round glasses), is a YMCA president who is planning a trip to the newly founded Soviet Union to spread the idea of the YMCA. His wife, Madge, is worried that Russia is full of savage Bolsheviks who wear primitive rags and fur for clothing, as depicted in American magazines. He takes along his cowboy friend Jeddie played by Boris Barnet for protection and as a companion.

However, on arriving in the USSR his briefcase is stolen, he gets separated from Jeddie and he falls into the hands of a group of thieves, including a run-down Countess (played by Aleksandra Khokhlova), who masquerade as counter-revolutionaries. The thieves play on West's fears and engineer his abduction by crooks dressed up as caricature Bolshevik "barbarians." The thieves then "rescue" West from the clutches of these fictional Bolsheviks, extorting thousands of dollars from him along the way.

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