User Reviews

"A Royal Scandal" from 1945 smacks of its original director, Ernst Lubitsch, and not much of the director who took over for him when he became ill, Otto Preminger. Since Lubitsch had rehearsed the actors and prepared the script, I assume they retained much of what Lubitsch had in mind for this film. At any rate, it's a wonderfully funny film.

Tallulah Bankhead plays Catherine the Great, who was notorious for taking lovers and elevating them to great heights while they were in favor. They did all right when they fell out of favor, too, because apparently she pensioned them off and they lived quite handsomely. In this film, she takes a fancy to the Countess Anna's (Anne Baxter) fiancée, Alexei Chernoff (William Eythe), so much so that she puts off a Marquis from France (Vincent Price). The Countess Anna is devastated, and Alexei is thrilled as he becomes in charge of the palace guards. Meanwhile, Chancellor Nikolai (Charles Coburn) has to tolerate him.

Some of this film is laugh out loud funny, particularly the scene where Catherine, fearing she has lost Alexei, collapses on the floor and Alexei tries to pick her up. Hilarious. Tallulah's line delivery is great, and she and Coburn have wonderful chemistry as they spar. Anne Baxter was only 22 when she made this film, and she's lovely. The handsome Eythe was a type that 20th Century Fox loved, but for a variety of reasons, he never hit stardom. Darryl Zanuck, who was so furious with Tyrone Power for marrying Annabella that he quashed her career and gave Power a bad film, Daytime Wife, as punishment, pushed Eythe into a marriage to quell rumors about him, but it didn't help, and Zanuck lost interest in him. (I mention Power because supposedly he refused to do this movie - it seems unlikely, because he wasn't back from the war when this film was made; also, Zanuck would never have put him in a film where he wasn't the main star.) Eythe was a charming actor, but to my mind, anyway, not really star material.

Bankhead's costumes and jewelry are to die for. Very good movie, and, as others have pointed out, a real buried treasure.

After seeing a couple of serious dramas concerning the ascension to the throne of Russia of Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst who has come down in history as Catherine the Great, it was an interesting change to watch A Royal Scandal and see what Tallulah Bankhead did with the Mother of all the Russias.

The two films that I refer to are the ones done in the Thirties that starred Elizabeth Bergner and Marlene Dietrich. Both of those dealt with young Catherine and how in a palace coup she dethroned her husband and as the consort Empress was recognized as the actual ruler. What happens in those two films play very much into what happens in A Royal Scandal.

What a coup accomplishes, another coup can reverse. Catherine is not all that secure on her throne. She's in the midst of a power struggle between her military leaders personified by Sig Ruman and her Chancellor who wants a peace policy capped off with an alliance with France. Chancellor Charles Coburn has even got an ambassador from Louis XV in the person of Vincent Price to seal the deal.

In all this blunders William Eythe an earnest but not terribly bright young guardsman, the kind Catherine the Great was known to fancy. She fancies him a lot, but as she says one must be wary not to put too much trust in handsome men in uniforms.

So we've got a nice little Russian court comedy going with Ruman and Coburn both trying to use Eythe for their own purposes and Bankhead who when Eythe says his sword is at her disposal, she wants to make sure she gets the most use out of it. While all this is going on, Eythe is engaged to Anne Baxter one of Tallulah's ladies in waiting. And she doesn't want a castoff when Bankhead's through with the merchandise.

Coburn comes off really well as the foxy old chancellor who's survived many a palace intrigue by using his wits. Ruman's not bad either and I do love Grady Sutton's brief role as Ruman's idiot son who just wants to go back to the Urals. Sutton's southern accent actually works here as he makes the Urals sound like the Ozarks. Definitely a touch of Ernest Lubitsch.

A Royal Scandal together with Lifeboat, both released in 1945 marked the height of Tallulah Bankhead's all too brief film career. Too few film parts for this stage legend, only the Lunts are worse in that regard. For that reason this bright and witty comedy should be seen and treasured.

NO film with Charles Coburn can really miss, and A ROYAL SCANDAL has so much more going for it on top of Coburn and top billed Tallulah, you want it to be as delicious a Lubitsch confection as it promises to be. It is for at least the first ten minutes while the pacing remains frantically break-neck (and some necks are nearly broken). Even when it inevitably slows down, it remains lightly enjoyable for most of its 94 minutes, but Otto Preminger was decidedly the wrong director to shepherd the Lubitsch project to fruition, and too much of the blithe banter, even in the hands of such reliable clowns as Sig Ruman just misses the mark as Tallulah alternately rages at and romps with alternating 'favorites' while senior minister Coburn protects her and her country (and keeps French Ambassador Vincent Price frustratingly off screen waiting his turn with the Empress).

Coburn's scenes all sparkle with his amused knowing looks and quite conspiring, and "Guard of the East Gate" Misha Auer makes his few scenes comic gems, but neither handsome William Eythe (a Tyrone Power hopeful who never quite caught on - bad roles hurting more than rumors about his private life) nor the raging Tallulah (taking a slight wrong turn into costume farce after a dazzling contemporary outing for Hitchcock in LIFEBOAT) are given enough substance or variety in their frustrated - intended to be comic - dance of seduction to deliver either the hilarity or the sexual tension intended. With the exception of PORGY AND BESS, did a Preminger film *ever* understand the comic aspect of sex? His closest approach to subversive comedy may be in inexplicably showing COBURN more fond of Anne Baxter (William Eythe's on screen fiancé) than Eythe appears to be - but it would be easy to miss her entirely in an underwritten role but for Coburn's concern.

Other than the polished LIFEBOAT, the great Tallulah's dozen or so movies (Bette Davis kept getting to make Bankhead's greatest stage roles in film - from DARK VICTORY to the LITTLE FOXES) show up so seldom these days, and so few of them preserve the comic touch which Bankhead was known for on stage (her Broadway revival of Noel Coward's PRIVATE LIVES is still the longest running production of that great comedy and her Sabina in Thorton Wilder's THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH is justly renowned) that no one should miss a chance to see A ROYAL SCANDAL, but the great misfortune the film originally suffered of opening the day before President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died (can you think of a WORSE time for a farce/comedy to open?!) was not the only reason the film is not ranked among Lubitsch's masterpieces.

Still, a Lubitsch near miss is as good as many another film maker's milestone. 'Well worth a look - and if it adds to our enjoyment to think of Ann Baxter's later role in ALL ABOUT EVE as a love letter from Tallulah to Bette, well, it isn't such a bad idea either.

...but, oh, so much more. This film is, as other posts have already indicated, a buried treasure. Produced and prepared by Lubitsch, its source is the same as that of the Lubitsch-directed silent "Forbidden Paradise" (1924, starring Pola Negri, Adolphe Menjou and Rod La Rocque), considered by critic Paul Rotha to be Lubitsch's most brilliant film. "A Royal Scandal," surprisingly, has taken a critical drubbing over the years, and director Preminger professed not to like it. (It should be remembered, though, that Preminger, when interviewed, was often vague about his films.) Seems that Otto, though a great admirer of Lubitsch (and who was not?) did not feel comfortable with "the Lubitsch touch," which, he says, too often sacrificed character for easy laughs -- and, in this case, required an empress to act unlike an empress. Perhaps -- but on the other hand, on the evidence of this film, Preminger's mastery of the Lubitsch touch was thorough. The film is brilliantly paced (rapid fire and crackling dialogue throughout), superbly acted, magnificently designed and photographed, and scored very creatively by Alfred Newman. One sees the seeds for Tallulah's famous (though by now, sadly, near forgotten) offstage character in her shameless cruising of the young soldier (William Eythe) who wants no greater glory than to be close to the throne. And at this point, she is young enough to pull it off gracefully, veering just to the edge of camp without crossing the line. Eythe is a more-than-promising comedian: his two brief blinks as the empress Catherine tells him that she can see in his eyes that he is "good and true" are alone worth the price of admission. (Scenes between the two of them comprise a good half of the film.) Charles Coburn is very wisely used -- a consummate reactor, he is often seen in the background tellingly reacting to two characters' interaction in the foreground. Which is not to say that he doesn't have his own very bright moments. (Catherine's chancellor, he is the character who makes all the wheels turn.) Anne Baxter brings fire and music to her role as Eythe's fiancée, and Vincent Price brings a great deal of wit to what is little more than a cameo as the French ambassador. Mischa Auer, too, is particularly good in this film (as he is not always). For once he is not required to pull out his heavy accent and -- surprise! -- he speaks perfectly excellent English! A thoroughly entertaining film, and perhaps if its director hadn't expressed his reservations it would have a better reputation today. In my opinion, it's really stronger and more of a "Lubitsch picture" than most any of the (in my heretical opinion) somewhat overrated Ernst's later efforts, "Heaven Can Wait" and "Cluny Brown", lovely as they are, notwithstanding: this one's a gem. Just released (March 2006) on a Columbia DVD in France. Not the most perfect print, but probably better than any seen in a theater for many, many years. (The French subtitles, on the other hand, can't be turned off, which is fairly inexcusable.) By the way, I watched this movie twice within a span of 24 hours and it was even better the second time. (Since this was written, there has been released in the U.K. a double bill DVD of this with "Margin for Error," Preminger's first film, which makes it something of a bargain, though "Margin" is hardly essential.)

If you're looking for an example of a movie that really throws everything at you, "A Royal Scandal" is it. The movie focuses on Catherine the Great's romance with a young officer amid all manner of intrigue in 1700s Russia. Of course, since the movie is Ernst Lubitsch's brainchild, there's lots of comedy and the occasional violation of social propriety. Lubitsch fell ill, so Otto Preminger took over the task of directing, but the movie is no less enjoyable.

Scholars of Russia will probably object to the comical tone, as well as the screwy transliterations and the repeated mispronunciation of Alexei Chernoff's name. But if one accepts the movie as simply an excuse for Talullah Bankhead to overact to the fullest extent, then there's a great time to be had watching it. I recommend it.

It took A ROYAL SCANDAL for me to realize that Tallulah Bankhead must have been wonderful on Broadway in THE LITTLE FOXES. Here, under Otto Preminger's direction, she gives a wonderfully restrained (for her) performance as Russia's Catherine the Great, shamelessly flaunting her loneliness in front of a man betrothed to another (ANNE BAXTER) but deciding that he looks fabulous in a white uniform (WILLIAM EYTHE).

Bankhead and Eythe are reason enough to watch this one. For once, he had a role that showed he had talent that should have been nurtured into full fledged stardom, but never was. He bears a strong resemblance to Tyrone Power and handles his role with authority and ease.

Bankhead seems on the verge of doing her Diva act at any given moment, but restricts herself to a few "Shut up!" remarks or slyly commenting on the fact that she'd like to do a lot for the peasants. She never misses an opportunity to give any slightly risqué line a clearer meaning, just from the way she glances or moves. It's a wonderfully entertaining performance.

CHARLES COBURN, ANNE BAXTER, SIG RUMAN and others do their parts in fine form, but VINCENT PRICE is wasted in the role of the French ambassador who ends up becoming the new apple of Bankhead's eye. Baxter is particularly good at demonstrating that she could show flashes of temperament beneath the sweetness and charm.

Best of all, the dialog is full of innocently delivered one-liners that make it one of the most enjoyable farces I've seen in years. And WILLIAM EYTHE shows that he had a talent for farce that should have landed him more such roles.

Well worth watching for the performances alone.

Tallulah Bankhead is Catherine the Great and runs the Russian Palace as she chooses. In reality, it is Charles Coburn who fixes things to run smoothly as the Chancellor and she allows him a few discretions, ie, pocketing money for himself. Into this Court arrives Lieutenant (I think) William Eythe to warn Tallulah that she is in great danger – she already knows this but she fancies him and this is the driving force behind the film. I forget what rank he is in the army but you will understand my memory lapse once you have seen the film.

The film is a comedy and can be slightly over-the-top in terms of acting techniques, especially, William Eythe. The cast are all pretty good in their roles – Anne Baxter holds her own in scenes with Tallulah as her lady-in-waiting, but it is Tallulah's show and she doesn't disappoint in her delivery. Coburn is also good. However, other characters do grate slightly, especially at the beginning in a sequence with traitor General Sig Ruman (Vronsky) which goes on for too long, playing for humour and missing the mark. Also, Vincent Price turns up as a French diplomat affecting a shockingly bad French accent. Why?

Overall, the film is OK, funny in parts, but nothing great which is ultimately a disappointment as I was expecting better. A time-passer and chance to see Tallulah in action.

I saw this movie over 30 years ago on late night television. I was expecting a dry costume drama, but ended up laughing my head off at one of the classiest comedies I have ever seen. And unfortunately that was it. I have never seen it again, on TV or on video. In fact I don't think it has ever been released on video. Talullah's film appearances were few, and this showed her at her forte, comedy.

Granted, she was also one of the great dramatic actresses of her day (her performance in The Little Foxes on Broadway is considered to be one of the finest of the 20th century), but more marketable actresses always won out over her in Hollywood (she never forgave Bette Davis for stealing the Foxes role from her).

When can a larger audience expect to see this comic gem? (and when can I find out if my childhood memories can stand up to my adult tastes?)

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!

When A Royal Scandal first came out, I probably would have considered it saucy and sophisticated and very funny. Times have changed. It's now old-fashioned, spiceless sauce, unsophisticated, and not at all funny. I watched 45 minutes without laughing and then gave up. I don't know at what point Preminger took over for Lubitch when he died and perhaps Lubitch might have wound up making it sophisticated and comic even for today (as he did others, notably Trouble in Paradise); but Preminger was the wrong choice to complete this one. Tallulah, who sparkled on Broadway (when young, I saw her in Private Lives), was so-what? here. She read her lines well enough, but the dialogue itself was mediocre and predictable. Much blame must go to writer Edwin Justus Mayer (of the delighful Midnight), who faltered here.

The history of this film has been documented well,and its failure, at the time, has taken its toll on its reputation. Perhaps, it was made at the wrong time; perhaps Tallulah Bankhead was not the 'darling' of the film critics as she had been by theater critics; perhaps it was an easy target because Lubitsch had been ill and Peminger substituted - a simple target to call a film 'not of a piece'. I do have a copy of it, though, and, today, it stands as a comedy of wit, charm, and delicious mischief. Bankhead is 'mahvelous' playing it to the hilt and offering superb takes on all of her lines. Her reaction shots are among the funniest yet capture on film. No, it is not Catherine -- it is Tallulah--but this is a satirical romp and not meant to be faithful to Russian history. William Eythe, forever underrated, is perfection.A stellar comedic force (he was equally fine in more serious roles e.g. TheHouse on 92nd Street). Coburn is in the right frame of mind and action; Anne Baxter does not quite capture the spirit of the madness, but she is not bad. It is probably insane to think that 'A Royal Scandal' finally can get the credit it deserved. But it is a tasty and wonderful cinematic morsel to enjoy again and again.

A drawing room comedy can find a limited audience in almost any era, but this is 2013. I am not sure about 40's audiences, but nowadays, "A Royal Scandal" ain't going over. I am old enough to appreciate subtle humor but this picture is far too subtle for today's average viewer. I think Lubitsch needed more of a hand in this production, even though he is the nominal producer. He was taken ill and directorial duties were handed over to Otto Preminger.

In any case, it is another chance to view a national treasure in Talullah Bankhead, who made very few movies - and that's our loss. She gets good support from Charles Coburn, and not much from William Eythe. His performance was one-note and strident and he seemed ill-at-ease as her officer-lover. He was billed as the 'next Tyrone Power', who was himself an underrated actor. I felt Eythe nearly sank the picture by himself with his shrill heavy-handedness. Vincent Price plays the French ambassador, and with a very bad French accent.

I just felt that this picture was not in the same league with other Lubitsch films and his definitive touch was not so much in evidence. It was disappointing in this regard, and the script needed to be funnier.

Tallulah Bankhead wasn't in many movies, and having only seen her in Lifeboat, I thought I should see her in something else, so I tracked down this. I'm quite pleased I did.

Filmed very much as the stage play it originally was, this movie is quite funny, as quick-witted and slow-witted characters face off. Bankhead makes a wonderfully larger-than-life queen and Coburn is excellent as a sly chancellor.

There's not a lot to the story, and at times I would feel a little distracted (the great difficulty of watching movies at home amidst one's other toys), but it was funny - sometimes very funny - and even though Preminger took over the direction due to Lubitch's illness, it has that Lubitch quality to it. There are better Lubitch films, but there are also worse ones, so I'd say Preminger did a good job.

They take the well-known history of Catherine the Great's many love affairs and turn it into an amusing story not based on facts. There are no laugh out loud moments, but plenty of grins and chuckles. Who knows how accurate the portrayal of the Empress is, but Talullah does a fine job of making her very imperial, yet vulnerable. Although the movie isn't to be taken too seriously, it is a fun watch.

The wavering whims of aristocracy, total sycophancy thereto - romance, interpersonal drama, a little bit of sociopolitical flavoring - and farcical dialogue, characters, and scene writing in the middle: this definitely looks and feels like an Ernst Lubitsch film. It may have been the last he was involved with, and Otto Preminger may have ultimately assumed directorial duties, but one unquestionably recognizes the sharp wit and silliness that defined the filmmaker's oeuvre as far back as the 1910s. In the common arrangement of discrete scenes between only a handful of characters, one can likewise easily discern the picture's origins from a stage play. Fascinate oneself with the details as one might, though, the fact remains that 'A royal scandal' is a delight, quite enjoyable and continuing to stand pretty tall almost 80 years later.

True, perhaps it doesn't achieve any critical peak of comedic zest; the writing team of Edwin Justus Mayer and Bruno Frank aim for consistency in their screenplay rather than prompting riotous laughter. There's nothing wrong with that though, and that goal is handily achieved with wonderfully smart, sharp dialogue, ridiculous characters, and vibrant scene writing. If the narrative is treated more blithely in the process, shuttled to the bottom of the list of priorities with no small measure of disinterest? That's a sacrifice I'm willing to live with. After all, the cast embrace the pomp with splendid energy and personality, not least Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, and William Eythe. The production design and art direction are truly outstanding, befitting all the opulence of a royal palace, and likewise for the fabulous costume design. Factor in Preminger's excellent direction and the similarly keen photography of Arthur Miller, and it's safe to say that even if this is more reliably amusing than pointedly funny, it's very well made in every regard.

Deemphasized as the plot is in service of the humor, I still would have preferred if both were more robust. It's hard not to feel throughout these ninety minutes as if 'A royal scandal' is mostly just kind of coasting on by, clever as it often is. Some manner of brighter spark to grab onto would have helped the title to stand out more beyond being a testament to the careers of those involved, a 40s comedy among 40s comedies. Be that as it may, though it may not be an essential must-see, I don't think there's much disputing that this is dependably entertaining more so than not. It's good for a soft recommendation, maybe, and not a wildly enthusiastic one, yet sometimes that's all a feature needs to be. Don't go out of your way for 'A royal scandal' but if you do have a chance to watch, it's a fine way to spend a lazy day.

Ernst Lubitsch produced it and put his name above the title but the directing duties this time went to Otto Preminger and while "A Royal Scandal" may lack 'the Lubitsch Touch' this screen version of Lajos Biro and Melchior Lengyel's play "Die Zarin" is often very funny and splendidly cast. Set in the court of Catherine the Great it's basically a vehicle for Tallulah Bankhead in one of her rare screen appearances. She makes for an imperious empress and dominates her every scene but a supporting cast that includes Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, Ty Power lookalike William Eythe, Sig Ruman, Mischa Auer and Vincent Price give excellent value. Indeed in their few scenes together Baxter more than holds her own against Bankhead and Eythe proves himself a versatile comic actor. It also shows Preminger could do comedy with a little help from his producer, of course.

Otto Preminger was brought in to physically direct this Ernst Lubitsch production about guy crazy Catherine of Russia (Tallulah Bankhead) and a soldier lover (William Eythe) that she constantly promotes. Scripted and rehearsed by Lubitsch, it's a talky door slamming (naturally) drawing room comedy on a grand scale that quickly lends itself to tedium and satiric bombast.

Catherine the Great is busy running her country but leaving most of the work to a chancellor ( Charles Coburn) while she chases men. She falls for an idealistic Lieutenant who "looks good in white" but they clash over his ideas and her intentions. Meanwhile buffoonish generals plot her overthrow.

Bankhead's campy Catherine simply overwhelms Eythe's earnest ways. A second tier Tyrone Power (the original choice) lookalike, the imbalance is obvious from the outset and the lengthy exchanges between the two are a mismatch with Tallulah punching down all the way.

Given their differing directorial styles one wonders if Otto was unable to pull off the timing Lubitsch intended. The script itself has a burlesque feel with Bankhead and Eythe doing an Abbott and Costello stand-up most of the way with little sign of Lubitsch's firm grip on the subversive wit to be found in most of his films.

This movie is so hilarious! Normally I don't like modern dialogue attached to a period piece, but I was laughing so hard, I didn't bother with the details. In a highly fictionalized account of Catherine the Great, the audience sees how she manipulates, seduces, wages war, and takes more interest in her champagne than affairs of state.

Tallulah Bankhead plays Mother Russia, a term she hates to hear, since it reflects on her age, and she has a weakness for handsome, young men. She's demanding and wants what she wants when she wants it. Just before she's to meet with the French ambassador, Vincent Price, she meets a devoted soldier William Eythe and prioritizes his youth, handsomeness, and enthusiasm over French-Russian relations. William is engaged to Anne Baxter, and he has no romantic interest in Tallulah, but Mother Russia won't take no for an answer. While her chancellor, Charles Coburn, tries to quietly fix her mistakes behind her back, she rages on in her pursuit of William. Tallulah's timing is impeccable, and as she rattles off one-liners faster than she blinks, you wonder why she retired after such a success. It's such a delight to see her in this movie: selfish, impulsive, calculating, and merciless. "Tell me everything. That's enough."

Sig Ruman costars as one of the empress's generals, secretly planning a revolution. He gets to rattle off just as many one-liners as Tallulah, and it's easy to see why he was so employed as a character actor in the silver screen. He's so funny! "Psst! Don't talk to me," he whispers to one of his co-conspirators.

If you like that type of humor, you'll love this movie. You won't have to keep up with any political issues, and you don't have to remember your history. Just sit back and enjoy the fast-flying barbs!

"A Royal Scandal" has a score of 7.0 on IMDB and mostly glowing reviews. Combine this with an excellent cast (particularly Charles Coburn) and that it was created by Ernst Lubitsch, I should have really loved the movie. Instead, I found it very talky and dull.

The film is set in the royal palace and concerns Empress Catherine (Tallulah Bankhead) and in the story, she spends most of her time chasing handsome young guys and ignoring the affairs of state. It also shows her as very capricious and a woman whose emotions control her every action.

While it's true that Catherine the Great had man affairs, her sex life always seemed to come second to her ruling her nation. In other words, she was competent AND not a shallow, capricious nut-case like she seems to be in the movie.

I think it's interesting to compare this incredibly talky film with Marlene Dietrich's portrayal of a younger Catherine in "The Scarlet Empress". This earlier film really stuck closer to true historical facts and was also not nearly as talky and was mesmerizing. In contrast, "A Royal Scandal" just seemed silly and trivial. I recommend you just see this earlier film and skip this gabfest.

This is a dazzling comedy, filled to the brim with witty dialogue. In fact, you should question the sense of humor of anyone who says otherwise. Bankhead is delicious as the queen, alternately petulant, absentminded and seductive. The character actors are a great deal of fun, and the scenes are so cleverly acted, it bears repeated viewing just to laugh again at how fun it must have been for all the actors. Vincent Price is uproariously over the top as the French ambassador, although he's only in a few scenes. Charles Coburn keeps things moving along with his brilliant deadpan humor, and a very young Anne Baxter is astonishingly beautiful, with a very peculiar yet appealing manner of speaking.

Ernst Lubitsch was due to direct this screenplay that he helped develop with the screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, but he fell too ill to actually go beyond the pre-production process. The executives at Twentieth Century Fox tapped studio director Otto Preminger, another European émigré to Hollywood, to take over the production, and I think this proves the necessary presence of Lubitsch on his own film sets. It was more than just guiding the script until they found the Lubitsch Touch. It was guiding the actors (he would often act out scenes for them just as he wished them to be played) and managing the overall tone. A remake of Lubitsch's earlier Forbidden Paradise, which was a much lighter affair than A Royal Scandal, this film seems almost leaden in tone compared to what I believe the script actually was. Essentially, it feels like Preminger took a script that Lubitsch was obviously working towards making a light palace comedy and turned it more fully into a melodrama.

When you think about it, the entire story is rather silly. A young lieutenant, Alexei (William Eythe), runs across the western expanses of Russia to warn Czarina Catherine (Tallulah Bankhead) of a revolution against her throne that Chancellor Nicolai (Charles Coburn) has already quelled through manipulation of the main conspirators. Catherine ends up smitten with the handsome young lieutenant who is, unknown to her, engaged to one of Catherine's ladies in waiting, Anna (Anne Baxter), and takes him through a series of promotions in quick order that take him from lieutenant to captain to major to colonel and finally to general, all in the space of a few days. All of this is going on while the French ambassador (Vincent Price), straight from the court of Louis XV, is waiting for an audience to discuss a potential alliance between the two nations. It's...silly.

And how does the film treat it? After Alexei's promotion to colonel, it ends up taking a surprisingly serious air, only occasionally broken up by small moments of comedy. Scenes are filmed rather flatly, at least in terms of their comedy (Preminger was an accomplished visual stylist and gives the images depth and strong compositions). As the film kept going, with Catherine realizing that she had little use for Alexei other than him looking good in his white uniform, and the scenes tended to get more grave in tone, I began picking up lines here and there that seemed to have been written with a comedic intent that just get played out straight, without comedic pauses, and told with surprising earnestness. I know that Lubitsch directed rehearsals, but I suppose that work only went so far weeks into production, separated from Lubitsch's instructions and possibly overruled by Preminger.

Is that a bad thing? That these scenes are played so straight? I think so. It takes something silly and pushes it fully into melodrama. The characters and overall situation simply don't feel built for that kind of thing, and the swerve into a more serious tone isn't really supported by what came before. The first third really does feel like something of a comedy, but the second third feels like it comes from another movie. Sure, it's the same characters following through on the situations born of the first third, but the joy is just gone. There's a scene where Catherine figures out Anne is Alexei's fiancé, and she tries to make her lady in waiting take a vacation far from the palace in St. Petersburg. The verbal vying between the two women feels like it was written to be a light duel in a sillier film, but both Bankhead and Baxter play the scene very seriously, turning a slight spoken battle of wits into two women really trying to wound each other with Catherine succeeding. It's mean, and it's in the middle of a film about Catherine trying to bang the most recent addition to her bodyguard.

The movie's third act is dominated by Alexei, tired of the abuse and insults from Catherine, and giving in to the current conspirators led by General Ronsky (Sig Ruman), agreeing to take part in the newest revolution. To sell the film's further silly aspects, Nicolai immediately shows up as soon as Alexei is out of the room to buy off the conspirators. I may not have thought that the fractured form of Forbidden Paradise I could find was entirely successful, but I could appreciate it for the comic tone it tried to maintain. The whiplash of Alexei throwing a table (the second time for comic effect, in fact) to Nicolai showing up right after he leaves to the feeling of serious threat that Alexei brings to Catherine in the middle of the night doesn't feel right at all. The resolution of everything including the alleviation of a death sentence and Catherine becoming enamored with another man, being so comic after the more serious play out of the bulk of the third act is just the final bit of whiplash the movie has to offer.

I don't take this as evidence that no one could reclaim the Lubitsch Touch, just that Preminger was the wrong director for the job. Billy Wilder was making movies at this point, and if he had been so inclined to take on the job (I seriously doubt he would have said yes at all if offered due to potential feelings of inadequacy in following up his idol), he might have been able to find a similar touch as Lubitsch. Preminger was simply not interested in finding the right tone, following in the footsteps of a man who made movies so opposite to his later films like Anatomy of a Murder or Advise & Consent. Essentially, Preminger bungled the job. He filmed cleanly and clearly, but he never seemed to have considered what the script was trying to do.