The former touring actor-manager Petr Chardynin made an early name for himself - and gave Russian cinema a distinctly cultured orientation - with Pushkin adaptations like " The Queen of Spades " (1910, 16 min.) and " The House in Kolomna &# 34; (1913, 30 min.). In the latter, Chardynin’s protegé Ivan Mozzhukhin played both a dashing officer and a farcial cook.