{"id":42595,"date":"2019-02-09T18:34:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T01:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=42595"},"modified":"2021-01-07T21:08:24","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T04:08:24","slug":"scarlet-empress-the-1934","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=42595","title":{"rendered":"Scarlet Empress, The (1934)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;It must be cold &#8212; at night.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Poster-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-42603\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Poster-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Poster.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA naive German princess (Marlene Dietrich) is sent to marry the &#8220;cruel, cowardly half-wit&#8221; nephew (Sam Jaffe) of the Russian empress (Louise Dressler), and charged with producing a male heir &#8212; which she does, though not by Jaffe, who she can&#8217;t stand. When Dressler&#8217;s health begins to fail, Jaffe dreams of being with his lover (Ruthelma Stevens) and having absolute power over the nation and his wife &#8212; but Catherine, now much more self-confident, has other plans.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Character Arc<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Josef von Sternberg Films<\/li>\n<li>Marlene Dietrich Films<\/li>\n<li>Royalty and Nobility<\/li>\n<li>Russia<\/li>\n<li>Sam Jaffe Films<\/li>\n<li>Strong Females<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that &#8220;Josef von Sternberg&#8217;s astonishing, self-described &#8216;relentless excursion into style&#8217; is the most idiosyncratic of his seven Marlene Dietrich films, and one of the most bizarre films ever to emerge from a Hollywood studio.&#8221; He notes that &#8220;Sternberg was one of the few directors to recognize and explore the link between sexual politics and political power&#8221;: &#8220;the film is about a woman who rejects her fate and through self-determination achieves self-preservation&#8221;. He adds that while Dietrich&#8217;s &#8220;whole life has been spent following the life&#8217;s course others set out for her&#8221;, &#8220;once she dutifully gives birth to a male heir&#8230; she is through being pushed around and goes on the offensive to realize her personal ambitions, using what she acknowledges to be her own &#8216;special&#8217; weapons&#8221;. The first half of the film shows &#8220;Dietrich as she has never been in a Sternberg film, without her absolute control, sense of irony, air of superiority, mystery, or indifference&#8221; &#8212; but by the second half, &#8220;suddenly, thank goodness, Dietrich is back, living by her wits, her own code and logic, manipulating men who once thought they were controlling her.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Peary goes on to write that &#8220;visually, the film is dazzling, the most imaginative American film of the sound era prior to <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=42173\"><em>Citizen Kane<\/em><\/a>&#8221; &#8212; and while Sternberg apparently liked to claim full auteurship over his films and not give appropriate credit, he did work &#8220;closely with Paramount&#8217;s costume designer, Travis Banton; with imported Swiss artist Peter Balbusch, Hans Dreier, and Richard Kollorsz on the incredle Byzantine sets (which were meant to be &#8216;recreations&#8217; of the Russian court); and with cinematographer Bert Glennon on his masterly composed images&#8221;. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s245scarlet.html\">DVD Savant writes in his review<\/a>, &#8220;There is hardly a close-up of a character that doesn&#8217;t share the frame with a giant gnarled hand or twisted wooden face. It&#8217;s as if the drama were being played out amid a castle crowded with petrified ancestors.&#8221; Peary adds that most of &#8220;the film&#8217;s most memorable scenes have no dialogue, just music and sounds effects to heighten the impact of the extraordinary images: the wedding ceremony; the wedding banquet; and the sweeping finale&#8221;. He ends his <em>GFTFF<\/em> review by asserting that &#8220;Sternberg&#8217;s greatest, most perverse film has still not received its due&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>To that end, in <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>, Peary names this &#8220;bizarre film &#8212; some would say berserk&#8221; &#8212; Best Movie of the Year. In this review, he highlights Dietrich&#8217;s performance, noting she&#8217;s &#8220;perfect as Catherine; she is fearless, sardonic, indifferent, playful, ambitious, and as naughtily flirtatious as Mae West&#8221;, turning from a &#8220;naughty innocent &#8212; ripe for seduction&#8221; into a &#8220;shrewd libertine, and then in her triumph, a monster who relishes both her power and the means by which she obtained it&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Dietrich3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Dietrich3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"368\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-57016\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Dietrich3.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Dietrich3-300x216.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Dietrich3-128x92.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Dietrich3-376x270.png 376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He adds that while she &#8220;may be crazed&#8221;, we &#8220;forgive her, if only because she&#8217;s still preferable to Peter&#8221; (played by Jaffe, who is &#8220;ideal as the demented ruler&#8221;). <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Jaffe.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Jaffe.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"368\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-57015\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Jaffe.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Jaffe-300x216.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Jaffe-128x92.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlett-Empress-Jaffe-376x270.png 376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Peary writes even more about the film in his first <em>Cult Movies<\/em> book, where he notes that it &#8220;stimulates the senses with provocative sexual imagery, often of a perverse nature; breathtaking montages of barbaric torture, some nightmarish, some realistic; mammoth palace chambers, heatless and sparsely furnished, with heavy, fifteen-foot-high doors that groups of nameless scurrying ladies of the court struggle to open, and large, weirdly sculpted gargoyles, saints, faces, and bodies twisted into attitudes of great suffering; [and] an eighteenth-century Russian court full of oddball characters one would more expect to find in Alice&#8217;s Wonderland.&#8221; It&#8217;s all truly unlike anything you&#8217;ve ever seen, and well worth at least a one-time visit. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Marlene Dietrich as the Empress Catherine<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-42601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Dietrich.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Bert Glennon&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-42599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Cinematography.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Consistently mesmerizing sets and costumes<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-42604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Sets.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-42602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles-128x72.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Scarlet-Empress-Gargoyles.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as an entirely unique cult classic. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0025746\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1934\/09\/15\/archives\/mr-von-sternberg-presents-miss-dietrich-and-the-scarlet-empress-at.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s245scarlet.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/great-movie-the-scarlet-empress-1934\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Greatest Films Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/89202\/the-scarlet-empress#articles-reviews?articleId=276073\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/review\/4041\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criterion.com\/current\/posts\/1-the-scarlet-empress\">Criterion Review (Robin Wood)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;It must be cold &#8212; at night.&#8221; Synopsis: A naive German princess (Marlene Dietrich) is sent to marry the &#8220;cruel, cowardly half-wit&#8221; nephew (Sam Jaffe) of the Russian empress (Louise Dressler), and charged with producing a male heir &#8212; which she does, though not by Jaffe, who she can&#8217;t stand. When Dressler&#8217;s health begins to fail, Jaffe dreams of being with his lover (Ruthelma Stevens) and having absolute power over the nation and his wife &#8212; but Catherine, now much&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=42595\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42595"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62182,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42595\/revisions\/62182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}