The Last Command (1928)

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Lajos Biró (story)
John F. Goodrich (writer)

Release Date:

24 September 1928 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

EMIL JANNINGS -- World's finest dramatic actor in a brilliant successor to "The Way of all Flesh" -- and "Variety." You'll be amazed with Janning's tremendous role of the mighty general!...with men...women...a whole nation at his feet! Through flaming love...adoration...hate! To...! The most terrific climax the screen has ever known!

Plot:

A decorated, aristocratic Czarist General is reduced to penury after the collapse of Imperial Russia...

Plot Keywords:

Russian Revolution | Film Extra | Film Industry | Revenge | Humiliation

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Emil Jannings	...	Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander
Evelyn Brent	...	Natalie Dabrova
William Powell	...	Lev Andreyev
Jack Raymond	...	Assistant director
Nicholas Soussanin	...	The adjutant
Michael Visaroff	...	Serge (the valet)
Fritz Feld	...	A revolutionist

Runtime:

Germany:85 min | USA:88 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Based on the life of General Lodijensky, a former general in the Russian army of Czar Nicholas, who fled Russia after the 1917 Communist revolution and wound up in Hollywood, where he worked for a while as a movie extra.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood" (1995)

An ending worth waiting for

Russian emigrant director in Hollywood in 1928 (William Powell) is casting his epic about the Russian revolution, and hires an old ex-general from the Czarist regime (Emil Jannings) to play the general of the film, and the two relive the drama and the memory of the woman they shared (Evelyn Brent), of 11 years before.

Try as I might, I feel it hard to warm to 'The Last Command' for all its virtues. 'The Docks of New York' was indubitably a great film, and 'Underworld' is a film I have always been craving to see, but 'The Last Command' is rather heavy-going. The premise is fascinating, but the treatment does really make the script come to life, except in the sequences set in Hollywood, depicting the breadline of employable extras and the machinations of a big movie production with state-of-the-art technology.

Emil Jannings is, predictably, a marvelous Russian general, distinguishing wonderfully between the traumatized and decrepit old ex-general, transfixed in his misery, and the vigorous, hearty officer of yore.

The ending is great and worth the wait, but in order to get there you must prepared to be slightly bored at times.