La zarina

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.

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!

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 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.

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.