The Cossacks

A novel by Leo Tolstoy provides the source for the rowdy and romantic silent-era adventure, the Cossacks, presented to today's audiences in a superb print and with a colorful orchestral score by Robert Israel. John Gilbert, the screen's famed Great Lover, portrays Lukashka, son of a Cossack Chieftain. Mocked for his peace-loving ways, the young Cossack proves he's made of sterner stuff when he out rides and overwhelms enemy Turks who've escaped with his village's horses. Yet greater tests of his courage and prowess await Lukashka. He also faces a romantic rival - a czarist prince intent on marrying Lukashka's beloved (played by Renee Adoree, Gilbert's costar in the Big Parade). Applauded by the New York Times' Mordant Hall for it's earnest attention to the atmospheric detail, the film is rife with celebration, ceremony and, above all, amazing trick-riding performed on galloping steeds by real-life Cossack horsemen.