Two Russian movies

I just saw a DVD with two early Russian movies.  Last night I saw OUTSKIRTS, a movie from the early '30s about a small Russian town during World War I.  A German POW finds work in the town's shoemaking shop and later joins in the October Revolution.  Like many early sound movies, it's a bit stilted and slow-paced.  And it's certainly unsubtle, in the manner of Stalin-era productions.  But it's still pretty effective overall.

This evening I saw the Russian silent THE GIRL WITH THE HATBOX.  It's a pretty manic comedy about a hatmaker who commutes into Moscow then "marries" a homeless student so he can live in the Moscow room she's entitled to. (Maybe you can guess what happens next.) There's also a lottery ticket.

I've been watching GUNSMOKE on DVD.  I think I actually prefer the later seasons when they toned down the violence a bit and shifted into character study.  The show had a lot of interesting guest stars. (Leonard Nimoy played a Native American in one episode, and definitely looked the part!) In the smaller roles I've even seen western movie veterans like Harry Carey Jr. and Ben Johnson.

The cold I had the other week is gone, but I still feel a bit of a headache.  I went to bed at 7:30 and woke up around midnight.  Goodness knows when I'll be waking up tomorrow!