Of course 2 million dollars is nothing for a movie budget today, but back in 1938 it was the equivalent of what would now be about 40 million dollars. Fortunately, every penny of MGM's French Revolution tragedy shows up on-screen. The sets, the b/w cinematography, and of course the Adrian costumes (the large hooped gowns which barely pass through the doorways are a movie onto themselves) culminate in one opulent, frenzied, pageant of a story. Norma Shearer Thalberg is the quintessential queen; it's interesting to see her age throughout the film. Though there are always critics who need to nitpick at her age appropriateness (sp?) for this film, I think she does a perfectly credible job going from a teenager to a young adult at the time of execution (the queen was supposed to about 36 when she was guillotined). There are several astonishing moments: the wedding night sequence with Shearer and a somewhat frigid but endearingly shy Robert Morley; the costume party and blind man's bluff game with Shearer and Reginald Gardiner which becomes deliciously provocative; and of course, the final scenes with an imprisoned Shearer who has by now aged so severely she is barely recognized by lover Tyrone Power. A big movie in every way that would, sadly, be eclipsed barely a year later by GONE WITH THE WIND. Check it out.
Review of Marie Antoinette
