The Scarlet Empress

The Scarlet Empress
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
1934/USA
Paramount Pictures
Multiple viewings

Grand Duke Peter: I want to play with my toys!

The Scarlet Empress is Josef von Sternberg’s interpretation of the rise of Catherine the Great. The plot is basically the same as in the London Pictures production reviewed here previously but the characters are quite different. Marlene Dietrich plays Catherine as a wide-eyed innocent for the first half of the movie (this was quite a stretch!) then as a sly dominatrix after she produces an heir to the throne. Sam Jaffe must have been told to throw caution to the wind in coming up with his imbecilic Grand Duke Peter. Louise Dresser plays Empress Elizabeth as a kind of Mid-Western fish wife having a very bad day.  Finally, there is the lantern-jawed, wooden John Lodge as Catherine’s erstwhile love interest.

Dietrich as the virginal Princess Sophia

My descriptionsmay lead you to believe that I did not enjoy the film but au contraire!  By all objective measures it is very bad indeed but this kind of high camp that is endlessly watchable. The art design alone is simply so delirously over the top that it is not to be missed. The wedding banquet table, alone, is a breathtaking mixture of the pornographic and the sinister.

And then there is the photography. Von Sternberg must have had Dietrich shot through every kind of sheer fabric he could get his hands on. It’s as if he went completely off the rails in some kind of masochistic frenzy of adoration. My favorite costume is Catherine’s negliigee, which is a see-through black number over a hoop skirt topped off with a black feather bodice.  The Scarlet Empress really cannot be adequately described; it must be experienced.

It was hard to select among the many bizaare images available from this film! Here we have an example of the decor when Peter uses a giant hand drill to spy on his Aunt Elizabeth’s bed chamber.

Although the film was not released until after the effective date of the enforcement of the Production Code on July 1, 1934, Joe Breen was clearly nowhere to be found when this hit the streets on September 15, 1934.  It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency as “morally objectionable.”

Patented Dietrich cold stare