The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

When you're writing a novel and it's necessary for plot purposes to allow characters to behave inconsistently or to contend they were in a certain place at a certain time when in actual fact you have recorded the fact in an earlier chapter that they were miles away or not even in the country at all at that particular time, just go right ahead! Few people, if any, will pick you up on this. This movie, for instance, has at least two really glaring plot holes, but I didn't pick them up myself on a first or second viewing. It was only last night that I suddenly realized that at least three or four of the principal characters are either incredibly stupid or inexhaustible liars or simply as blind as bats! But as I say, if you've never seen the movie at all, please go ahead and watch it. You'll really enjoy it. The screenplay not only jots along at an admirably fast pace, encompassing lots of twists and turns, but it's enacted by a really great cast of professionals – no born yesterday brainwaves or witless protégés of sexually inexhaustible producers. Powell and Rainer, of course, are both in fine form – but so is everyone else in this fast moving, big ticket production.

Dressed up as "Romeo" for a masquerade ball in Vienna, Russian royal Robert Young (as Peter) meets pretty costumed "Juliet" Maureen O'Sullivan (as Maria). They seems like a perfect match, but it's really a plot to abduct Mr. Young. His imperial highness is to be exchanged for her revolutionary father. Young has written a letter to his father, asking him to halt the execution of Ms. Sullivan's father. The letter eventually becomes hidden in "The Emperor's Candlesticks". Chasing them around are a couple of spies, Polish secret agent William Powell (as Stephan Wolensky) and Russian counter-agent Luise Rainer (as Olga Mironova). Of course, the spies become mutually attracted...That may or may not be a good description of the plot; it's simple, but confusingly presented. Director George Fitzmaurice and his editor do not assist in making it understandably smooth. In an interesting scene, we cut from Mr. Powell looking at a train station poster to what looks like a clip from the end of "Anna Karenina" (1935). This is perversely appropriate as Ms. Rainer often appears to be doing impersonations of that film's star, Greta Garbo. By the mid-1930s, Garbo's films were making 2-3 times more money than previously; that's great, but she was averaging only one every two years. MGM needed another glamorously accented worldwide star. Enter Luise Rainer..."The Emperor's Candlesticks" was the first film to feature Ms. Rainer as a big star. While second-billed, she clearly commands the camera's focus; this film was produced for her. It's also the first Rainer made after back-to-back "Best Actress" Academy Award-winning performances in "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and "The Good Earth" (1937). The star of Rainer's first two US films, Powell appears more puzzled than passionate in his scenes with Rainer; remember, he's supposed to be falling in love with her. More perturbed than puzzled MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who orchestrated Rainer's Oscar-saturated introduction, received notice that his Garbo gamble might not pay off.**** The Emperor's Candlesticks (7/2/37) George Fitzmaurice ~ Luise Rainer, William Powell, Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan

No wonder Luise Rainer's career went south following this film and several others. Following her Oscar wins, Ms. Rainer was rushed into some poor films and the results showed quickly.In this film, she sounds like she has congestion, but people would say that this was because of her accent.A tale of Polish and Russian spies, the entire concept needed reworking. The writing is weak, the performances by Rainer and Powell just aren't there because they're given such poor material to work with.As the Countess Mironova, Rainer acts and looks like a refugee living in Brooklyn. She appears as one of the foreigners you would meet at a marketplace.The plot is a good one. Polish nationalists kidnap a Russian emperor's son in the hopes that a Polish nationalist will be freed. Instead of concentrating on this, the film devotes itself to how 2 spies, Rainer and Powell, try to outwit each other by getting the candlesticks which reveal important information inside.Frank Morgan provides some comic relief to Robert Young, the victim of the kidnapping. Yet, his part is mainly understated as is the problem with the entire film.

I've seen The Emperor's Candlesticks twice now and I'm still trying to figure it out. Why are the Russian secret police so intent on getting their Grand Duke killed is beyond me?Polish patriots kidnap a Romanov Grand Duke while he's on a holiday in Vienna. The Grand Duke is played by Robert Young and he's with Frank Morgan as his protector. That alone should tell you Romanov security stinks big time. Young's seduced and led to his kidnappers by the lovely Maureen O'Sullivan. She's got a good reason for doing it, her father's in a Czarist prison awaiting a death sentence. The idea is to swap Young for dad. But for some reason I absolutely can't fathom, the Poles are afraid their note explaining their demands to the Czar won't reach him.The Poles get William Powell to deliver the message and the Russians have their own agent Luise Rainer. The note is to be delivered in one of a pair of Louis XV candlesticks and Powell and Rainer run all over Europe, Vienna, Paris, London and finally St. Petersburg. Naturally of course the opposing spies are falling for each other.The same plot gambit was used by MGM in Operator 13 with Gary Cooper and Marion Davies in the American Civil War and also in The Firefly with Allan Jones and Jeanette MacDonald. Those were pretty good films, but MGM came up short with this one. The Emperor's Candlesticks wastes a pretty good cast in a very trite and incoherent story that Powell and Rainer can't save no matter how much they turn on the charm.