Marlene Dietrich is always a treat, and in this film, the 6th of her 7 collaborations with director Josef von Sternberg, she plays Catherine the Great. The film held my interest, but I have to say, it fell a little short for both Dietrich and von Sternberg. The ornate sets are fabulous, and include Expressionist versions of icons and garish carvings, but von Sternberg relies on them too much. He gives us dramatic action and an overly loud soundtrack, but works from a weak script, and loses the human element in the process. Dietrich flips from being too wide-eyed and open-mouthed in the first half of the film, overplaying innocence, to using her feminine charms to win over support against her husband, Peter III. The film is far from historically accurate, and we also don't see anything of Catherine's astonishing reign, including her love of the arts and her advancement of Russia. What we do see are here responding to "You know that the grand duke isn't exactly pleased with the present state of affairs" by quipping "State of affairs? What affairs? I haven't had an affair for some time" with a sly look in her eyes. It's made clear that she's sleeping around, and in one scene romps happily between two men. Aside from the disservice to Catherine the Great, which I suppose you can ignore because this is Marlene Dietrich after all, even in the context of a vehicle to highlight her eroticism, there is something cold and detached about it, and she's better elsewhere. Worth watching for Dietrich and the wild sets, but temper your expectations.
Review of The Scarlet Empress
