Catherine The Great

Also known as The Rise of Catherine the Great, this film was released the same year as von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress which also dealt with the story of Catherine II, and which had the benefit of Marlene Dietrich in the lead (here Catherine is played by Elisabeth Bergner, wife to the director). Douglas Fairbanks Jr. played the tyrannical Czar Peter III who Catherine marries and eventually deposes to become the 'mother of all the Russias' whilst Flora Robson, a regular of historical films of this period, obliges as the dowager Empress.

It was the second of London Films' historical epics, following Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) but it did not repeat that film's success. Adapted by Lajos Biró, Marjorie Deans and Arthur Wimperis from a 1913 Hungarian stage play by Biró and Melchior Lengyel and with lavish set design by Vincent Korda and Georges Périnal's elegant cinematography it does not manage to overcome the problem common to such productions, that of balancing a historical accuracy with the demands of narrative dynamism. It was by all accounts not a happy production with studio head Korda quarrelling with the director, demanding scenes be re-shot and even directing some of them himself.

 

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