The scarlet empress
It.: L’imperatrice Caterina; Sog.: Dal Diario Di Caterina Ii; Scen.: Manuel Komroff, Eleanor Mcgeary; F.: Bert Glennon; Mo.: Sam Winston; Su.: Harry Mills; Mu.: John M. Leipold, W. Frank Harling Daimovimentidella “Quarta Sinfonia (Marcia Slava)” E Dell”’Ouverture 1812” Di Pjotr Ilich Chaikovsky, Del “Rondò Capriccioso” E Di “Sogno Diuna Notte Dimezza Estate” Difelix Mendelssohn E Della “Valchiria” Dirichard Wagner; Int.: Marlene Dietrich (Sophia Frederica / Caterina Ii), John Lodge (Conte Alexei), Sam Jaffe (Granduca Peter), Louise Dresser (Imperatrice Elisabetta), C. Aubrey Smith (Principe Augusto), Gavin Gordon (Gregory Orloff), Olive Tell (Principessa Giovanna), Ruthelma Stevens (Contessa Elisabetta), Davison Clark (Arcivescovo Simeon Tevedovsky), Erville Alderson (Cancelliere Bestucheff), Phillip Sleeman (Conte Lestocq), Marie Wells (Marie Tshoglokof), Hans Von Twardowski(Ivan Shuvolov), Gerald Fielding (Tenente Dmitri), Maria Sieber (Catherine Da Bambina), Jameson Thomas (Tenente Ovtsyn), Edward Van Sloan (Sig. Wagner), Jane Darwell (Sig.Na Cardell), Harry Woods (Il Dottore), John Davidson (Marchese De La Chetardie), Kent Taylor (Paul), Richard Alexander (Conte Von Breummer), Hal Boyer (Un Lacchè), Eric Alden (Una Guardia), James Burke, Belle Stoddard Johnstone, Nadine Beresford, Eunice Moore, Petra Mcallister, Blanche Rose, James Marcus, Thomas C. Blythe, Clyde David, Julanne Johnston, Elinor Fair, Bruce Warren, George Davis, Agnes Steele, Barbara Sabichi, Katherine Sabichi, May Foster, Minnie Steele, Dina Smirnova, Anna Duncan, Patricia Patrick, Elaine St. Maur; Prod.: Adolph Zukor, Josef Von Sternberg Per Paramount Productions, Inc.; Distr.: Paramount Productions, Inc.; Pri. Pro.: 15 Settembre 1934 35mm. D.: 100′ A 24 F/S (Western Electric Noiseless Recording). Bn.
Film Notes
While it may be true that Catherine the Great (Dietrich) becomes increasingly dehumanized, loveless and sadomasochistic as she wins political power, and while these days Sternberg’s Dietrich cycle is often summed up as the perversion of love into fetishism and sadomasochism, summaries can never do justice to such films. Sternberg: “I completely subjugated my bird of paradise to my peculiar tendency to prove that a film might well be an art medium… The film was a relentless excursion into style, which, taken for granted in any work of art, is considered to be unpardonable in this medium. The tapestry of the Russia of Catherine the Great was evoked in all its grandeur, though it was a re-creation and not a replica, the story of the rise of a guileless young princess to a mocking and ruthless empress.” Sternberg makes full use of Paramount’s resources in his boldest adventure in making architecture and sculptural forms an integral part of his intrigue, which his actors must interact with, dressed in ever more fabulous costumes, a supreme achievement of lighting and sound design. (Sternberg wrote a violin composition for it, and says that he directed the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra for the background music!) Could Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible have been, in some sense, his own baroque reply to Sternberg?