A Royal Scandal (1945)

So much average

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Here is your chance to see the flamboyant acclaimed actress Tallulah Bankhead on film. She was much better known as a stage actress, as she preferred live audiences, didn't like Hollywood, and often didn't come over well on film. This film has been controversial, whereas her previous film "Lifeboat" is generally recognized as her best role. In the present film, she is certainly the dominating personality, in the role of the early middle aged Catherine the Great....The prolific Charles Coburn , as the sly chancellor, is in many scenes. He his the ultimate survivor in the ever risky palace bureaucracy. ...William Eythe , as young Lt. Alexei Chernoff, also has much screen time, primarily with Charlotte or Coburn. It's the relationship between Charlotte and Alexei that is the meat of the story. ...Although there is no historical basis for the specifics of the story, it is well documented that Catherine had many lovers during her reign. Anne Baxter has a non-essential role as Countess Anna: Charlotte's lady in waiting, and Alexei's young fiancé. Just how she, as a member of the royal court, and Alexei, a soldier on the western front, managed a romance before Alexei's arrival at court is not explained. ....Vincent Price has the role of the French ambassador, Marquis de Fleury, come to negotiate a treaty, is known primarily for his flowery praise of Catherine. He is seen only near the beginning ,and again at the very end, when he closes the film with a hint that he and Catherine soon will be lovers.....Sig Ruman has the role of General Ransky, who supposedly came to the palace to see Alexei, as the new commander of the imperial guard. But, he eventually reveals himself as a traitor to the queen, intent on leading a coup d'état, perhaps because of Catherine's anti-war sentiment. Although Alexei initially is very hostile when it is proposed that he join the revolution, after an argument with the queen, he joins them. His main role is to make sure the palace guard is elsewhere during the storming of the palace. Just before the storming, he rushes into the queen's bed chamber and rattles his sword, but says that he wants to protect her from being killed. Then, he leaves. Meanwhile, chancellor Coburn, who had pretended to join the revolution, has taken control of the palace guard, and hidden them in the palace , awaiting the arrival of the rebels. He doesn't want the queen deposed, as that would probably be the end of his position. The palace guard arrest the ringleaders, including Alexei. It turns out that they generally get remarkably light sentences. Alexei is sentenced to die, but the queen tries to find a reason why he shouldn't. Regardless, he is resigned to his fate. When asked if she pardoned him, she doesn't answer, but a physical act answers the question....I thought the film was reasonably good, with the main actors all good. The screenplay is a bit farfetched in some ways, mainly involving Alexei......You should be aware that there is another film(for TV) also titled "A Royal Scandal", released in 1997, dealing with the troubled marriage of George IV, of the UK, and his wife Caroline, It is an acted documentary. Both films are presently available at YouTube and on DVD.

This was begun by Ernst Lubitsch (who also produced) but, after suffering a heart attack, handed over the directorial reins to Preminger (who eventually received sole credit for it!) – as would happen all over again 3 years later when Lubitsch died early on during the production of the Ruritanian Technicolor musical THAT LADY IN ERMINE (1948)! The film under review is actually a Talkie remake of Lubitsch's Silent success FORBIDDEN PARADISE (1924; which seems to be available solely via an incomplete print boasting Czech intertitles!). It is yet another movie dealing with the reign of Catherine II of Russia, known as "The Great"; however, this was made at Fox instead of Paramount (Lubitsch had been Head Of Production there at the time of Josef von Sternberg's magnificent THE SCARLET EMPRESS {1934}). The tone is very different, too: being a comic romantic soufflé as opposed to a flamboyant epic (even if the Queen's various dalliances were still a major plot point of the Sternberg movie), this one ostensibly offered pure wartime escapism…but the result is so flat as to be insulting (depicting potentates as fickle figures concerning themselves with frivolities and rewarding soldiers over their bedroom antics rather than military tactics was hardly wise under such precarious circumstances!), much more so in fact than the accusations of bad taste levelled at Lubitsch's satirical – but not unfeeling – masterpiece TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)! Despite the typical studio gloss, a most able cast (led by Tallulah Bankhead as a not-so-young Catherine, Charles Coburn as her wily Chancellor, William Eythe breaking into the Palace bearing old news{!} but remaining to become the Queen's new favorite, Anne Baxter in an ALL ABOUT EVE {1950} dry-run as her lady-in-waiting and catty rival for the latter's affections, Vincent Price as the fey French ambassador who spends almost the entire running-time waiting to be received by Catherine{!}, a typically pompous Sig Rumann as the high-ranking officer planning a coup d'etat, Mischa Auer as a flustered sentry and Vladimir Sokoloff as a Palace adjutant) and a script by Edwin Justus Mayer (who also wrote the afore-mentioned Nazi lampoon), the film looks decidedly claustrophobic, is filled with deliberately overstated performances, and comes across as distinctly heavy-handed. Whether all this is the humorless Preminger's doing, however, is hard to determine – since, it must also be said, the famed "Lubitsch Touch" is barely in evidence throughout! Mind you, the picture is not unamusing per se (though hardly as witty as one would have expected given some of the people involved!) and it clearly gets by on sheer professionalism alone: what I find inexcusable is that such money and talent were squandered on an essentially silly, empty charade – and an incessantly verbose one at that!

Caught this on TV last evening. Wonderful, amusing and funny. Tells the "story" of Catherine the Great, or as Mae West said, "Catherine WAS Great." A clone of Tyrone Power plays one of her lovers, and too bad this actor, William Eythe, did not appear in more movies. Who can say why? In any case, Tallulah shines, looks great, there's that word again, and you can tell she is having fun with the part. I really recommend this movie. It is very seldom on TV, but do catch it. A side note, Eythe was gay, but so was Tyrone, a coincidence, isn't it, and then, Tallulah also fooled around with both sexes, fitting for Catherine the Great.

Tallulah Bankhead as Catherine the Great playing Tallulah Bankhead. A deliciously paced farce with some very witty dialogue. Well directed, lit and edited by a team of pros, this is a nice change of pace from the Tallulah of "Life Boat" or "Die, Die My Darling."