Russian culture cops have been playing "Truth, truth, who's got the Historical Truth?" with a new Soviet film called Admiral Nakhimov, about a Russian naval hero of the Crimean war. After a private showing, the Communist Party's Central Committee had growled: "The historical truth has been profoundly distorted," ordered veteran Moviemaker Vsevelod Illarionovich Pudovkin to remake his film.
Fortnight ago, Pudovkin's new, enlightened version appeared, stripped of frivolous love scenes and staggering with political significance. Purred Red Star's Reviewer V. Ilienko: "The directors of the film have corrected their mistake. . . . He [Admiral Nakhimov] anxiously observes the events...