The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom (Kino, $29.95) is a rare surviving Soviet silent era comedy from 1924. Director Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky’s film, which was shot on the streets of Moscow, is fascinating just for its portrait of the Russian capitol in the early days of the U.S.S.R., though the film offers other pleasures as well. Even though the movie’s villain is a visiting American capitalist with a bankroll as big as his girth who entices the eponymous heroine to become his mistress after her fling at acting proves disastrous, this film was widely denounced by Soviet critics, one of who declared, “The only thing Soviet about this film in the citizenship of its actors.”  The movie was released during the year that Lenin died and its approach does reflect the greater freedom to experiment that filmmakers had in the early years of the Soviet republic.  The behind-the-scenes look at moviemaking elements of the story are among its most interesting aspects, especially the way that it makes fun of the studio’s top film director’ feeble attempts to “orchestrate” the action with his conductor’s baton. The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom, while hardly as groundbreaking as other silent Soviet films like Bed and Sofa (1927), does reflect the influence of Hollywood with a bit a slapstick and loads of character comedy from Igor Ilyinsky, who plays a lovelorn account (love the abacus) and generally mugs his way through the film with comedy stylings that wouldn’t have been out of place in a Mack Sennett movie from the teens. Though far from a polished product that could compare with the best American and European comedy films from the mid-20s, The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom is a “must have” for silent film collectors and those interested in the early days of Soviet Union, especially since the movie has been superbly restored by the Cinimatheque of Toulouse.