The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Directed by: Josef von Sternberg | 104 minutes | drama | Actors: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser, C. Aubrey Smith, Gavin Gordon, Olive Tell, Ruthelma Stevens, Davison Clark, Erville Alderson, Philip Sleeman, Marie Wells, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Gerald Fielding, Maria Riva

‘The Scarlet Empress’ is number six of the seven films Josef von Sternberg made with Marlene Dietrich. The story is based on the diaries of Catherine II (1729-1796), aka Catherine the Great, Mother Tsarina of all Russians, Messalina of the North, one of the most powerful and interesting figures of the eighteenth century. Not much in the film, however, is based on historical facts. Before Catherine became Catherine the Great, she was Princess Sophia Augusta Frederika in Prussia.

Each chapter of the film is introduced with a text or proclamation. The first chapter shows a doctor’s visit to the little princess who is sick in bed. Funnily enough, Marlene Dietrich’s real-life daughter, Maria Riva, plays this role. The doctor turns out to be an executioner and Sophia Frederika innocently asks if she can ever be one later. What follows is a montage of the tortures of Tsarist Russia of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, bedtime stories for little Sophia Frederika. A harbinger of what’s to come. When the Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser) of Russia chooses the now-grown princess as the bride of Cousin Peter III, everyone at court is delighted. The naive princess dreams of romance, fueled by the stories of Count Alexei’s (John Lodge) Grand Duke, but once in Moscow, she comes home from a rough patch.

Her future husband is an unattractive, sadistic imbecile, the Empress a mean kenau. The princess is forced to change her name and creed, to conform to Russian customs, and her main task is to care for a male offspring. The visual style of director Von Sternberg is beautiful here. The huge throne, doors, gargoyles, petrified corpses and the costumes show the captivity of Catherine and also the barbarity of that Russian era. But Catherine soon becomes wiser, she knows exactly like the old empress to rally the church and the army behind her. Marlene Dietrich’s beauty is convincing in both roles of naive girl and powerful woman. But she’s still best than the latter. The film has gems of scenes where Catherine protests Count Alexei’s advances by taking a twig of straw in her mouth each time. There is also the moment when the count watches Catherine seize power and then rings the bell with her own hands.

Occasionally the characters are caricatures of themselves, grotesque in their actions. The fact that no one sounds Russian (Marlene Dietrich has her famous German accent; Louise Dresser invariably talks like Elizabeth in her American, Midwestern accent) contributes to this. The film balances on the edge of farce and drama. Von Sternberg knows how to give the film a bizarre, impressive atmosphere, which is typical for him. The film is quite modern in terms of violence and sex for the time, although there are no explicit scenes in it. Catherine’s nocturnal encounter with a lieutenant and the elimination of Peter are filmed in a beautiful, suggestive way.

A special portrait of the evolution from naive princess to powerful tsarina, impressive images accompanied and emphasized by atmospheric music.