TOLSTOY’S SON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 15 (Supplement)

TOLSTOY’S SON

ACTS IN HIS FATHER’S STORY “Resurrection,” the screen version of Tolstoy’s masterpiece, which will shortly be seen in London, represents the fulfilment of a long cherished ambition. Ten years ago, Carewe, the producer, determined to film it, but that purpose failed to mature until Carewe by accident met Count Ilya Tolstoy, son of the literary giant, at a hotel in New York, and as a result of a conversation Count Tolstoy promised to help Carewe fulfil his ambition. When the sage of Yasnaya-Paliana began to write “Koneviski, ” or, as it is called in English, “Resurrection,” his son Ilya, helped him in the laborious longhand writing and rewriting of the immortal talc of Prince Dmitri and Katusha Maslova. From that meeting emerged the plan by which “Resurrection” became a £lOO,OOO spectacle, with Rod la Rocque as Dmitri and Dolores del Rio as Katusha, a sum in contrast to the author’s original royalty of £l2OO on the novel. The original MS. was accepted in 1899 for serial publication by the Niva, a Russian magazine. The proceeds of Tolstoy’s only copyrighted novel were given to the persecuted Dukhobors, a religious sect opposed to government by violence. Later “Resurrection” was translated into ten other languages and four stage translations alone. In 44 Resurrection’’ Count Ilya Tolstoy will play the part of his own father, Leo Tolstoy, in a special prologue to the film. Countess Tolstoy also makes her film debut in support of Rod la Rocque and Dolores del Rio.