Scarlet Dawn

Scarlet Dawn (1932)

** (out of 4)

Extremely light "B" movie from Warner about nobleman Nikita Krasnoff (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) who along with his servant (Nancy Carroll) is forced out of Russia. The two try to find a better life for themselves but each place they land just erupts in more violence as the revolution grows stronger by the day. Okay, Warner gave director Dieterle 57-minutes to tell an epic story about the Russian revolution so it should come as no surprise that the end result really isn't all that good. You really can't blame the filmmakers or the cast but what can you do with such a short time. Different characters keep coming up every few minutes and they'll make a brief appearance and then just disappear. We don't get to know that much about them and we really don't get to know why they're there to begin with or why they go away so fast. The movie features Fairbanks in a pretty good performance as he at least manages to put some fire in the character and make you feel like you're watching something real. Carroll doesn't have the same luck nor does Guy Kibbee in his supporting role. The sets aren't at all believable and not for a second did I ever believe I was in Russia or anything where a revolution was really going on.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars with Nancy Carroll and Lilyan Tashman in "Scarlet Dawn," a precode film from 1932.

Fairbanks plays a Russian baron, Nikita, who finds himself caught in the Russian Revolution, where he becomes one of the common people and realizes that he has no skills and needs a job.

He's nearly caught but after lying to the Reds, they take him to be identified and ask a servant, Tanyusha (Nancy Carroll) where he was staying about him. She plays along that he's not a baron, and he's released.

Nikita takes off for Istanbul (called by its old name here, Constantinople), and she follows. They marry; he gets a job washing dishes, and she gets one scrubbing floors.

The restaurant boss gives him a chance as busboy, he encounters an old love Vera (Lilyan Tashman) at the table. She waits for him outside and encourages him to go to Paris with her, where they can swindle a man and his daughter and enjoy some semblance of their old life.

Nikita agrees to go and tells Tanyusha that he will be sending her money and will return.

This film runs slightly under an hour, uses footage from the real Revolution or old Russia, I guess, and has that old trick of the paper showing headlines in Russian and then fading to English. Cracked me up.

For me the only good thing was Fairbanks, whom I love, and who always managed to hand in a performance that stands the test of time. He's handsome and sexy here, despite his sexual harassment of Tanyusha before they marry.

I'd say skip it.

A Russian baron evades the violent SCARLET DAWN of the Revolution by escaping Moscow with his faithful serving maid.

Here is an excellent little film, from Warner Bros. and director William Dieterle, full of excitement, drama and pre-Code libidinousness. The production values--sets, costumes, score--are all first rate and the acting is of a high quality. The picture's only major drawback is its too-brief conclusion, perhaps necessitated by its short overall running time of under an hour, but this does not explain why the film should be so unjustly obscure today. It is a small gem awaiting discovery by viewers appreciative of quality cinema.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr is properly dashing as the young nobleman whose life is suddenly tilted upside down by the political upheaval. The actor revels in giving a full-bodied portrayal, presenting a character both wantonly licentious and daringly brave. The sequence in which he dashes into the streets of Constantinople in search of Christian witnesses to his impromptu wedding is delightful in its unexpected sense of frolic & fun. Fairbanks is ably matched by Nancy Carroll, deftly underplaying her role as his adoring servant. The sweetness of her character's simple nature shines through, as well as a steely resolve, as she endures dangers and hardships to be with the man she loves.

Lovely Lilyan Tashman, in one of her final roles before her early death, plays the scheming Russian courtesan who hopes to use Fairbanks as her ticket to the good life in Paris. Guy Kibbee, a very popular character actor at Warner's, appears for only a few moments at the end of the movie as a wealthy American visiting the Levant.

Movie mavens will recognize Mischa Auer as a Russian cavalry officer; beefy Dewey Robinson as a Bolshevik thug; nervous Frank Reicher as a duplicitous pawnbroker; as well as Mae Busch & Lee Kohlmar as the wedding witnesses--all uncredited.

To be able to tell a story so eventful in less an hour is in itself a feat and William Dieterlé can't be praised too highly just for that .There are so many characters that sometimes the viewer does not know anymore who is who :even czar Nicholas appears in the flesh at the beginning.Never a dull moment;the Russian revolution only takes two scenes : the railway station where the hero is (fortunately) late and the panic in the streets .There's also a scene in his castle which the revolutionaries plunder : Jacques Feyder would copy it in his own "knight without armor" (1937);in that movie ,Marlene Dietrich is the noble one whereas her co-star Robert Donat is a plebeian.

Dieterle's taste for melodrama comes to the fore in the second part which takes place in Turkey. The connection between the scenes is sometimes thin and leaves the best till last.If this movie were remade,the ending would certainly be modified today.

This movie has lots of action and little heart. Let's forget for a minute that it gets just about every aspect of the Russian Revolution wrong - after all we only have only under an hour here to tell our story. In fact, the czar abdicated after World War I proved a disaster for the country, and a provisional government tried to rule as a pseudo-democracy until the Leninists took power nine months later, mainly because they promised to immediately withdraw Russia from the war. Now, back to our story.

Here we have the revolution being "rumored" in Russian newspapers in what appears to still be a functioning country until violence erupts suddenly and upends the life of nobleman Baron Nikita 'Nikki' Krasnoff (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). He flees his home with his former servant girl Tanyusha (Nancy Carroll) in tow, and they start to make a new life in Constantinople. Before the revolution the Baron made a regular habit out of making a play for the girl, not out of any real passion, but out of boredom as a diversion of sorts. The revolution doesn't change this, and he continues to try to take advantage of what is obviously a very simple girl. It certainly doesn't make the audience like this guy to see him toying with her so. Tanyusha follows the Baron because she literally has no place to go after the revolutionaries take over the Baron's home, and she has known no other life other than waiting on Nikki hand and foot. Once in Constantinople, Nikki quickly wearies of life as a penniless laborer, and that is when he meets up with his former lover, Russian aristocrat Vera Zimina, who has a plan for getting them to Paris where the Tsarists have congregated after the revolution. Unfortunately for Tanyusha, Vera's plan does not include her.

This film manages to completely waste the considerable acting talents of early talkie actress Nancy Carroll. She does a good job with what little she is given to do, but that is not much. Lilyan Tashman is the standout here, even though she has only a small role as Russian vamp Vera. Lilyan was so often given supporting roles just as she is here, but her earthy voice and glamorous looks make her the center of attention in every scene in which she appears. Guy Kibbee even shows up in a humorous bit as an American tourist who is curious about the Russian royalty that has been forcefully ejected from their homeland.