Review of Letter Never Sent

This relatively unknown 1959 movie from Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov is a great adventure film. A guide and three geologists go to the virgin forests of Central Siberia in order to find diamonds. The geologists include Sabinin, the older leader, the young, nerdy Andrei and the pretty Tania, who is Andrei's fiancé. Soon, the guide will start having strong feelings toward Tania (the movie seems to imply you should never include a beautiful woman in an otherwise all-male expedition). Diamonds will be eventually found, but before they can return to civilization, the team will be engulfed by a vast forest fire, and they will die one by one. This film may be nothing more than a paean to muscular Soviet man (and woman), but it is very well done. The black and white photography is astonishing; there is a particular scene of the young couple running through the forest at high speed that is extremely beautiful; at times, the scenes are so realistic one wonders how they did this (did they actually put the actors next to a real forest fire?)