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. Â 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. Â 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. Â It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency as “morally objectionable.”
Patented Dietrich cold stare
The worst wonderful film of the year…..maybe of any year. It is von Sternberg’s Valentine to Dietrich, his love letter to her beauty. He would have shot her through burlap if he thought it would make her even more exotic looking. I have to agree that her naive characterization in the first part of the film is pretty hard to take……but she hits her stride once she figures out the game and what is at stake.. The sets are something from an LSD trip.. I was a bit puzzled by the choice of John Lodge as the love interest…….he wasn’t bad looking but didn’t do much acting and was a bit of a wimp.. They needed someone more macho but no one springs to mind. It is the film of complete excess that must be seen to be believed.
This is one of the very few movies that are both bad and art at the same time!