The Scarlet Empress
Encyclopedia
The Scarlet Empress is a 1934
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...

 historical drama film
Historical drama film
The historical drama is a film genre in which stories are based upon historical events and famous persons. Some historical dramas attempt to accurately portray a historical event or biography, to the degree that the available historical research will allow...

 made by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 about the life of Catherine the Great
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

. It was directed and produced by Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...

 from a screenplay by Eleanor McGeary, loosely based on the diary of Catherine arranged by Manuel Komroff
Manuel Komroff
Manuel Komroff was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, editor and translator. Komroff was born in New York City....

. Substantial historical liberties are taken.

The film stars von Sternberg's lover Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

 as Catherine, supported by John Davis Lodge
John Davis Lodge
John Davis Lodge , was an American politician, and 79th Governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955. He was also an actor and U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland.-Early life:Lodge was born in Washington, D.C....

, Sam Jaffe
Sam Jaffe (actor)
Sam Jaffe was an American actor, teacher, musician and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle and appeared in other classic films such as Ben-Hur and The Day the Earth Stood Still...

, Louise Dresser
Louise Dresser
Louise Dresser was an American actress.Born Louise Josephine Kerlin in Evansville, Indiana. Her father was a train conductor who died when she was fifteen years old...

, and C. Aubrey Smith. Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva
Maria Riva
Maria Riva is a German-American actress who primarily worked on television in the 1950s. She is the daughter of the actress Marlene Dietrich, about whom she wrote a memoir published in 1994.-Early life:...

 plays Catherine as a child. It was one of the last mainstream Hollywood motion pictures to be released before the Hays Code was strictly enforced.

Plot

Sophia Frederica (Dietrich), is the daughter of a minor German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 prince and an ambitious mother. She is brought to Russia by Count Alexei
Alexey Razumovsky
Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky , was a Ukrainian Cossack who rose to become lover and, the morganatic spouse of the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna.- Early life :...

 (Lodge) at the behest of Empress Elizabeth (Dresser) to marry her nephew, Grand Duke Peter
Peter III of Russia
Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...

 (played as a half-wit by Jaffe in his film debut). The overbearing Elizabeth renames her Catherine and reinforces the demand the new bride issue an heir to the throne.

Unhappy in her marriage, Catherine finds solace with the womanizing Alexei, first and foremost a paramour of the much-older Elizabeth. Rebuffed at this discovery, she takes lovers among the Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...

 to court its favor. When the old Empress dies seventeen years into their marriage, Peter ascends to the Russian throne and takes steps against his wife. Soon Catherine plots and exercises a coup, beginning a reign as Empress that will leave her known to history as Catherine the Great.

Style

The film is notable for its attentive lighting and the expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...

 art design von Sternberg creates for the Russian palace. In film critic Robin Wood's words:
"a hyperrealist atmosphere of nightmare with its gargoyles, its grotesque figures twisted into agonized contortions, its enormous doors that require a half-dozen women to close or open, its dark spaces and ominous shadows created by the flickerings of innumerable candles, its skeleton presiding over the royal wedding banquet table.

Cast (in credits order)

  • Marlene Dietrich
    Marlene Dietrich
    Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

     as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, later Empress Catherine II
    Catherine II of Russia
    Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

  • John Davis Lodge
    John Davis Lodge
    John Davis Lodge , was an American politician, and 79th Governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955. He was also an actor and U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland.-Early life:Lodge was born in Washington, D.C....

     as Count Alexey Razumovsky
    Alexey Razumovsky
    Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky , was a Ukrainian Cossack who rose to become lover and, the morganatic spouse of the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna.- Early life :...

  • Sam Jaffe
    Sam Jaffe
    Sam Jaffe may refer to:*Sam Jaffe , American actor*Sam Jaffe , Hollywood talent agent, studio executive and film producer...

     as Grand Duke Peter, later Emperor Peter III
    Peter III of Russia
    Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...

  • Louise Dresser
    Louise Dresser
    Louise Dresser was an American actress.Born Louise Josephine Kerlin in Evansville, Indiana. Her father was a train conductor who died when she was fifteen years old...

     as Empress Elizaveta Petrovna
  • C. Aubrey Smith as Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
    Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
    Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst was a German prince of the House of Ascania. He was a ruler of the Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg, then, from 1742, a ruler of the entire Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst...

     (father of Catherine)
  • Gavin Gordon
    Gavin Gordon (actor)
    Gavin Gordon was an American film actor.He was born in Chicora, Mississippi], and died in Canoga Park, California, on his 82nd birthday....

     as Captain Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
    Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
    Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov was the lover of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia who fathered two of her children.He was the son of Gregory Orlov, governor of Great Novgorod. He was educated in the corps of cadets at St Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years' War, and was...

  • Olive Tell
    Olive Tell
    Olive Tell was a stage and screen actress from New York City.She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1915....

     as Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
    Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
    Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp was a princess of the House of Holstein-Gottorp and later the Electress of Anhalt-Zerbst. She is best known as the mother of Catherine the Great of Russia....

     (mother of Catherine)
  • Ruthelma Stevens as Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden)
  • Davison Clark as Archimandrite Simeon Todorsky / Arch-Episcopope
  • Erville Alderson
    Erville Alderson
    Erville Alderson was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 200 films between 1918 and 1957. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri and died in Glendale, California.-Selected filmography:*America...

     as Chancellor Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin
  • Philip Sleeman as Jean Armand de Lestocq
    Jean Armand de Lestocq
    Count Jean Armand de L'Estocq was a French adventurer who wielded immense influence on the foreign policy of Russia during the early reign of Empress Elizabeth.Coming from a noble family of Champagne, as a youth he was committed to prison for a petty offense...

  • Marie Wells as Marie Tshoglokof
  • Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
    Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
    -Biography:Twardowski was born in Stettin , Pomerania. He made his first film appearance in the 1920 Robert Wiene-directed horror movie Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari which starred Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. He would go on to appear in over 20 movies in Weimar Germany during...

     as Ivan Shuvalov
    Ivan Shuvalov
    Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov was called the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment and the first Russian Minister of Education...

  • Gerald Fielding
    Gerald Fielding
    -Selected filmography:* The Three Passions * Goodbye Love * The Scarlet Empress * The Price of a Song * The Man Behind the Mask * A Chump at Oxford * They Met in Bombay -External links:...

     as Lieutenant Dimitri
  • Maria Riva
    Maria Riva
    Maria Riva is a German-American actress who primarily worked on television in the 1950s. She is the daughter of the actress Marlene Dietrich, about whom she wrote a memoir published in 1994.-Early life:...

    as Sophia (child)
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