The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

Lev Kuleshov’s first feature film pays homage to Hollywood films and film techniques in a number of ways. The title character Mr. West resembles Harold Lloyd, and the acrobatic cowboy Jeddy, Mr. West’s bodyguard, is based on Douglas Fairbanks, both of whom were quite popular with Russian audiences. The film is a political comedy, but it draws on other genres that Kuleshov identified with Hollywood, including Westerns, action-adventure films and slapstick.
The film’s main comic target was the political divide between Soviet Russia and the United States, caused, Kuleshov suggests, by international misunderstandings. Although many Americans in the 1920s may have feared the intentions of Revolutionary Russia, Kuleshov saw around him a Russian population that embraced America’s cultural exports, especially its movies. It is telling that Kuleshov applied an American model of film making to a Soviet film that he hoped might help bridge the political gap between the United States and the USSR.