The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Film: The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Stars: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser, C. Aubrey Smith

Director: Josef Von Sternberg

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Marlene Dietrich: click here to learn more about Ms. Dietrich (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

When Marlene Dietrich came to Hollywood, she did so for Paramount under the assumption that she would be a counter to Greta Garbo (who was making bank over at MGM), and she was partnered with Von Sternberg, the director on her breakout hit The Blue Angel for her first picture.  We could honestly do an entire month just on their relationship, which was unhealthily codependent, and basically involved Dietrich "giving herself" in terms of artistic creativity to Von Sternberg.  It's not clear that Dietrich's impressive list of lovers included Von Sternberg (though his wife sued her during divorce proceedings for "alienation of affection," but they were reliant upon each other in a way that is virtually unmatched in Hollywood history.  I'd seen Shanghai Express but had not seen the remaining five classics (though I own them all from Criterion) between the two, and I settled on The Scarlet Empress, largely because film historian Karina Longworth once referred to it as "one of the most beautiful movies ever made," and if Karina tells me to do something, I do it.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about the rise of Catherine the Great (Dietrich) from an obscure German princess to be the most powerful empress in Russian history.  The film shows her first as a young princess, brought to Russia and disgusted by her husband Grand Duke Peter (Jaffe) who wants nothing to do with her, and chastised by her mother-in-law Empress Elizabeth (Dresser).  Catherine is chaste and confused by the world at first, but slowly finds herself seduced by lures of the flesh (and Marlene goes full sex goddess, even though we're technically post-Code by this time), and falls in love with handsome Count Alexey (Lodge), amongst other men, including a guard who likely sires her son (not her husband).  When Empress Elizabeth dies, it seems like the new Emperor Peter III will kill Catherine & wed his mistress (which his mother forbade in life), but Catherine successfully murders him, and takes the throne in a coup as the film ends.

The most distinctive thing about Von Sternberg's films in general, but especially with Dietrich, is his lighting.  Years before Gregg Toland was revolutionizing the concept of lighting onscreen, Von Sternberg used light & shadow to harrowing effect.  I said after seeing Shanghai Express for the first time that I've never wanted to smoke more he makes Dietrich with a cigarette look so intoxicating.  Here, there's less smoke but he fills the sets with gorgeous, fantastic costumes & lush royal quarters so that everything looks scrumptious.  At the center is Dietrich, looking magnificent in every regal pose, and lit in a way that it honestly feels like she ages as the film goes without ever once diminishing her beauty.  It's a gloriously-shot movie, and a well-constructed one.

The acting is also good.  Dietrich, at this point, it's hard to tell if she can actually make a mistake onscreen I love her so much, but she's wonderful here.  I don't know if I always buy her in the "clueless princess" mode but once she starts getting laid, nothing can stop her-Dietrich is on fire, lustily commanding every inch of the movie.  Jaffe & Dresser are both playing their characters cartoonishly, but honestly, it works for me-there's something impressive in the way that Jaffe makes his madness & frustration feel less like an oaf and more like a despot (which works better as he becomes a more plausible threat for Catherine then), and Dresser's Elizabeth is smartly constructed enough that you almost pity her she's been given such a ridiculous son and complicated daughter-in-law, even though she's ostensibly one of the movie's villains.