The Devil's Servants
Latvian-language poster on DVD.
Vella kalpi
Directed byAleksandrs Leimanis
Written by
Produced by
  • Visvaldis Saulītis
  • Gunārs Sops
Starring
  • Lolita Cauka
  • Haralds Ritenbergs
  • Eduards Pāvuls
  • Olga Dreģe
CinematographyMārtiņš Kleins
Edited byElza Preisa
Music byRaimonds Pauls
Production
company
Distributed byRiga Film Studio
Gosteleradio
Vietnam Television
Release date
  • 15 February 1971 (1971-02-15)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryLatvian SSR
LanguagesLatvian
Polish
Swedish
Russian

The Devil's Servants (Latvian: Vella kalpi, Russian: Слуги дьявола, romanized: Slugy dyavola) is a 1970 film produced and distributed by Riga Film Studio. It was written and directed by Aleksandrs Leimanis during the time Latvia was part of the Soviet Union.[1]

Formation

The 1960s marked the rise of romantic adventure films set in some historical contexts. This film was directly based on novel The Three Devil's Servants (Trīs vella kalpi) by writer Rutku Tēvs, which was published in 1935. However, the original book was not really famous.

In fact, the filmmakers were inspired by book The Three Musketeers, which was repeatedly adapted in the 1960s. However, they cleverly combined with a glorious event in Latvian history to secretly stimulate the national pride of Latvian people at a time when they were still members of the Soviet Union.

Besides, the film also touched a bit on the issue of conflict of beliefs between Catholics and Protestants, but it is intentionally portrayed from a cheerful perspective to make the audiences less offended.

Plot

At the beginning of the 17th century, Riga was still a small town, so it was not strong enough to withstand the onslaught of the Swedish army.

The troops of marshal Svensson has camped on the banks of the Daugava river and threatens the survival of the Livonian Confederation. The Swedes then send an envoy to sneak into Riga to bribe the wife of priest Hermanis Samsons, in order to force the consilium civitatis rigensis to open the city gates through Samsons.

Abbot Elizabete was the former lover of Samsons since the two of them had not taken the monastic robes yet. She decides to rent three young mercenaries from Courland, suggested them fighting to prevent full surrender of Riga. Three unemployed men suddenly have the opportunity to cause trouble in the town. They have to find a way to keep the key of the town gate from falling into the hands of the enemy, and only then can they hope to change their lives with a great reward. However, it turns out that there is something more precious on money and jewels, which is love.

Crew

The film's setting was staged at Riga, Tallinn and Kaliningrad.

Creators

  • Production designer: Laimdonis Grasmanis
  • Costume designer: Natalija Saporina, V. Line, Alma Rudzite, Arija Sprude
  • Makeup artists: Janis Riba, Elita Rudzite, Edite Bartkevica, Mirdza Celma
  • Sound engineers: Gleb Koroteyev, Aivars Mikelsons, Bruno Veveris
  • Special effect engineers: Vladimirs Naumovs, Janis Purberzins

Cast

  • Haralds Ritenbergs (voice by Harijs Gerhards) — Andris, a coachman from Ēdole
  • Artūrs Ēķis (voice by Tālivaldis Āboliņš) — Pēteris, a valet from Ēdole
  • Eduards Pāvuls — Ērmanis, a boatman on Daugava
  • Lolita Cauka — Rūta, Andris's lover
  • Olga Dreģe — Anna
  • Baiba Indriksone — Lēne
  • Elza Radziņa — Ģertrūde
  • Ingrīda Andriņa — Cecīlija
  • Kārlis Sebris — Hermanis Samsons
  • Edgars Zīle — Salderns
  • Ēvalds Valters — Colonel Nikolajs Eke
  • Jānis Grantiņš — Daniels Rebuss
  • Jānis Osis — Manteuffel
  • Haralds Topsis — Klāvs Angers
  • Valentīns Skulme — Marshal Svensson
  • Zigrīda Stungure — Elizabete
  • Gunārs Placēns
  • Arnolds Kalniņš
  • Otomārs Kūns
  • Oskars Ziemeļnieks
  • Kārlis Spuris
  • Edgars Sirmais
  • Pauls Melducis
  • Zigurds Zviedris
  • Zelma Virse
  • Alita Alkne
  • Andris Vītiņš
  • T. Bojāre
  • Pēteris Cepurnieks
  • Harijs Avens
  • Anta Klints
  • Mārtiņš Vērdiņš
  • Aija Baumane
  • Vera Selga
  • Maruta Feldmane
  • Oļģerts Šalkonis
  • Jānis Zenne
  • Aivars Leimanis

Influences

In 1605, Swedish troops under the leadership of General Mansfeld came ashore in Daugavgrīva and prepared for the siege of Riga. However, the combined troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Duchy of Kurzeme and Zemgale under the leadership of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Jan Karol Chodkiewicz defeated the troops led by the Swedish king Karl IX in the battle of Salaspils and Riga remained unoccupied yet.

  • By order from Moskva, the Polish and Swedish national flags were not allowed to appear in the film to avoid diplomatic trouble, and a specific year was not allowed to be named. It was implemented in such a way that the words "One thousand six hundred..." (Tūkstoš seši simti) were followed by a cannon shot.

In 1972, Riga Film Studio released a sequel to this film named The Devil's Servants at the Devil's Mill (Vella kalpi Vella dzirnavās).[2] However, this part did not achieve as expected, the audience rating was very low so the producer had to withdraw from the cinema theater soon.

Since 2010, Riga Film Studio has released a restore of The Devil's Servants in high definition which is HD 1080iP.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Anikó Imre (7 August 2012). A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 205–. ISBN 978-1-118-29435-2.
  2. ↑ Peter Rollberg (2008). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 435. ISBN 978-0-810-86072-8.
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