The Scarlet Empress (1934) DVD9 - Marlene Dietrich Collection [D

2014.04.10


The Scarlet Empress (1934) DVD9 - Marlene Dietrich Collection [DDR]

The Scarlet Empress is a 1934 historical drama film made by Paramount Pictures about the life of Catherine the Great. It was directed and produced by Josef von Sternberg from a screenplay by Eleanor McGeary, loosely based on the diary of Catherine arranged by Manuel Komroff. Substantial historical liberties are taken.

The film stars von Sternberg's lover Marlene Dietrich as Catherine, supported by John Davis Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser, and C. Aubrey Smith. Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva plays Catherine as a child.

CAST:-
Marlene Dietrich as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, later Empress Catherine II
John Davis Lodge as Count Alexey Razumovsky
Sam Jaffe as Grand Duke Peter, later Emperor Peter III
Louise Dresser as Empress Elizaveta Petrovna
C. Aubrey Smith as Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (father of Catherine)
Gavin Gordon as Captain Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
Olive Tell as Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp (mother of Catherine)
Ruthelma Stevens as Elizaveta Vorontsova, mistress of Peter III
Davison Clark as Archimandrite Simeon Todorsky / Arch-Episcopope
Erville Alderson as Chancellor Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin
Philip Sleeman as Jean Armand de Lestocq
Marie Wells as Marie Tshoglokof
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as Ivan Shuvalov
Gerald Fielding as Lieutenant Dimitri
Maria Riva as Sophia (child)

Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Produced by Emanuel Cohen, Josef von Sternberg
Written by Catherine II (diary)
Music by Bernhard Kaun
Running time 104 minutes



SYNOPSIS:- The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Sophia Frederica (Dietrich) is the daughter of a minor German prince and an ambitious mother. She is brought to Russia by Count Alexei (Lodge) at the behest of Empress Elizabeth (Dresser) to marry her nephew, Grand Duke Peter (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 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.

The film is notable for its attentive lighting and the expressionist 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.

The Scarlet Empress was one of the last mainstream Hollywood motion pictures to be released before the Hays Code was strictly enforced, but was "condemned" by the Catholic Legion of Decency as "morally objectionable".

The Scarlet Empress was described as one of Marlene Dietrich's most frank and suggestive films, which portrays Russia's future queen Catherine the Great as an oversexed, sexually-depraved dominatrix. The historic film is filled with erotic images and motifs. It also contains depictions of torture.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: English
RunTime 77 mins
Subtitles: None
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 77 mins