I knew absolutely nothing about this movie before seeing it.
This was the telling of the story of Catherine the Great of Russia (based on her diaries), starring Marlene Dietrich. Admittedly I was skeptical.
The movie was alright. Some of the acting was laughable. The Queen of Russia had a mid-western accent, and way over acted. The only thing that seemed believable or plausible in the movie was the lead actress, Dietrich.
In my post-movie research, von Sternberg and Dietrich made many movies together. And it seems as if the movies were just an excuse for him to feature her. So it looks like the story and all other facets of the film suffered to make her shine. I have to hand it to Dietrich, she's a good actress. I had never seen any of her movies before.
I have to say I was totally shocked at some of the sexual overtones of the movie. This was made just as the Hays Code was being ironed out. (The Hays code restricted what could and could not be in movies. Mostly around sexual behaviour.) There is a scene where the Russian consort who is bringing Catherine to Russia makes a pass at her and kisses her. She makes a remark that he shouldn't do that. He hands her a whip and says something along the lines of you will have to punish me. WHAT?!?!?!? I was like, did they just seriously show that. Holy moly!
The movie was over the top, kind of hokey and badly acted in general. The upside is, that I now know a bit of Russian history and the 'story' of Catherine the Great (at least according to Hollywood.)
One word to describe 'The Scarlet Empress': Hokey.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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