Bert Glennon's amazing cinematography is the real star here. The film considered as a whole...ehhh. No big deal. You'd think with the rich source material -- Catherine the Great's diaries, whoa -- there would be a compelling story at play here. But von Sternberg's tiresome obsession with Dietrich results in a lot of lingering shots of his perpetually open-mouthed (?) star that slow down any story to a crawl. And let's face it, Dietrich was beautiful but her acting skills were limited.
Too bad. It could have been a great film. As it is, an interesting but flawed bit of film history.
Too bad. It could have been a great film. As it is, an interesting but flawed bit of film history.