Apparently European royalty (especially attractive daughters of royal land rich and cash poor families) shuffled about, intermarrying into other lineages in order to maintain power and prestige. Thus Princess Sofia Fredericka of a not so well off German principality, was sent off to Russia in an arranged marriage with the sadistic "idiot son" Peter, (Sam Jaffe) of the aging, iron-willed empress Elizabeth Petrovna (Louise Dresser), in her hope (Elizabeth's) that their marriage (Fredericka's and Peter's) would produce a son to take over the Russian throne, in order, apparently, to keep Peter from power. Imagine how he must have felt? In any event, Josef Von Sternberg made this "fantasia" (Halliwell's Film Guide, 1995) about that particular point of history, giving it its own life by utilizing just about every inch of available space on the screen to stuff it with courtesans, gargoyles, statues, paintings, horses, etc... and in the midst of it all, the innocent, lovely, smart, witty, scheming, highly seductive Fredericka (annointed Catherine) played by Marlene Dietrich, whose face is photographed (Bert Glennon) behind various veils and other transparent fabrics, as she personally seduces the palace guards and works her way into power, avoiding decapitation by Peter and his host of opportunistic followers.
Review of The Scarlet Empress
