Red Monarch (1983)

Excellent Drama About the Horrific Farce of Stalin and Beria in early 1950s USSR - Red Monarch review by PV

For me, this is a superb TV drama WAY superior to the unfunny posturing 'The Death of Stalin' (2017) by the endlessly over-rated and unfunny Armando Iannucci.

This dates from 1983 and is from a stage play, and that shows in its theatricality and farce tradition - which is maybe the best way to respond to the horror of Stalin. Comedy and tragedy are two sides of the same coin.

Some old British character actors pop up in this, which is fun (eg David Kelly, comedy Irishman from Fawlty Towers and Robin's Nest etc) and Dave the Wincester Club barman from Minder!

Yes, subtitles would be handy as a few lines are hard to understand, esp with all the accents.

To make Stalin and the vile rapist Beria Irish is supposed to mark them as outsiders as both were Georgian in charge of the USSR in Moscow. I would suggest this idea is a bit dated though.

And NOW WAY would the pc gestapo in charge of TV now allow non-Chinese people to play Chinese characters - sadly. Though they always have black actors playing white roles now!

I enjoyed this. I'd like to see it on stage too.

4 stars

A Disappointment - Red Monarch review by CP Customer

I had high hopes of an entertaining comedy with perhaps some good social commentary as well. Unfortunately, from the start the dialogue was almost entirely unintelligible, and there was no subtitles option. I watched for about 10 minutes, caught very little of what was said, and of the little I followed the comedy appeared pretty lame. Also the general look of the production was one of a cheaply made tv sitcom. So 10 minutes, that was it, back it went.

Admittedly this might (though I doubt it) be a 3 or 4 star film if you could understand what was said, and, if your ears are better than mine, maybe you can. But there is definitely nothing about this film I can recommend.