Le secret des chandeliers

The grand duke of Russia. Peter (Robert Young) is kidnapped by Polish nationalists using the oldest trick in the book. He believes that a beautiful woman (Maureen O'Sullivan) who is a complete stranger to him is in love with him at first sight. He is shocked! Shocked I say! To find out that rendezvousing with her is a trap and she does not find his physique and witty repartee irresistible. The Polish nationalists have Peter write his dad the Tsar a letter saying that he must release a member of the Polish resistance scheduled to be executed or Peter will be killed. They give Baron Stephan Wolensky (William Powell) the task of getting the letter to the tsar. Wolensky is a secret agent for the Poles and unknown to the Russians. That is until...

... the Russians uncover letters in Wolensky's handwriting that prove he is a spy. They give these papers to one of the agents of the Russian secret police, Countess Olga Mironova (Luise Ranier), and she is tasked with taking these papers to the authorities in Russia.

They both hide their papers in the secret compartment of one of two different candlesticks headed back to Russia from Vienna. Neither one knows about the other's mission although they are both aware of whom the other is secretly working for. And then on the way back to Russia the candlesticks are stolen by a common thief and they both are on the trail - all over Europe -to find those candlesticks. Rather Slavic complications and Eastern European sounding symphonic music ensues.

I was actually surprised I liked this one as much as I did, and that was mainly due to William Powell's great performance as the charming and sophisticated baron and the cleverness of the plot. As for what I did not like - I've never "gotten" the appeal of Luise Ranier. During her and Powell's cat and mouse game through most of the film, she simpers and whimpers annoyingly. But then I thought she did the same in "The Great Zeigfeld" and she won a Best Actress award for that role. Also, MGM's sappy happy ending department decided to make the Tsar of Russia have the disposition of Judge Hardy. Any history book will tell you that was not the case.

Based on the Baroness Orczy tale of Russian Imperial espionage, this is actually quite a fun, if insubstantial, historical drama. It all centres around attempts to free a Polish dissident from prison. At the time, Poland was a vassal of the Czar, and so a group of influential Poles coerce the Grand Duke "Peter" (Robert Young) to write to his father imploring his intervention. What's this got to do with candlesticks, you might think? Well these clever little ornate gadgets have secret compartments - easy enough to smuggle a letter in. When they are inadvertently moved, then sold-on a few times it falls to Polish agent "Wolensky" (William Powell) to stay one step ahead of his Czarist protagonist "Countess Mironova" (Luise Rainer) and recover them before their secret is discovered and heads start to roll. Of course, you just know that these two are going to start to fall for each other, and sadly that is where the thriller element of this film starts to give way to the romantic one, and once we are in full slush mode, the whole thing rather falls away as we approach an ending that offers us little by way of jeopardy. It's a good looking film, though. Plenty of attractive people in attractive costumes; there is some chemistry between Powell and Rainer and Frank Morgan is quite fun as "Baron Suroff". Franz Waxman provides us with a rather unremarkably derivative score though - a sort of "Scarlet Empress" (1934) type affair that doesn't really help the rather uninspiring dialogue. It's my kind of genre and the Baroness did know how to conjure up a good intrigue, but this is all just a bit too join-the dots.

The beginning of The Emperor's Candlesticks shows Prince Robert Young and his manservant Frank Morgan at a masked ball. Bob gets distracted by a pretty face, Maureen O'Sullivan, and they enjoy a whirlwind romance that evening. Just when you think it's a cute movie, Maureen turns into a villainess and kidnaps him! This is an espionage thriller that shows you from the beginning you don't know who to trust and you don't know what to expect.

With a ransom note written to Bob's father tucked into a secret compartment of a pair of candlesticks, William Powell is supposed to smuggle the sticks out of the country so that the royal family can rescue the young prince without any scandal. There's another spy in pursuit of the candlesticks, and for a different reason: Luise Rainer. She and Bill don't know each other are spies, so there's quite a bit of tension as they try to get around each other while fighting for their own countries.

The plot of this movie can become a bit confusing if you're not fully paying attention, but if you're awake and alert, it's quite exciting. I liked the all-star cast, including Henry Stephenson, and the twists and turns along the way. It's refreshing to see Bill Powell without a martini in his hand, and this is a nice change of pace for him. Check it out if you're a fan.

The plot of "The Emperor's Candlesticks" is total nonsense in the 1930s Hollywood fantasies about benevolent despots, courteous kidnappers, and gallant spies. The story is only an excuse for a masquerade ball and a dash across Europe in pursuit of two candelabras that do not belong to the Russian czar or the Austro-Hungarian emperor, but are a gift from an Austrian nobleman to a Russian noblewomen. The carriers (the Polish Baron Wolensky and the Russian Countess Mironova, played by the stars, William Powell and Luise Rainer) lose and find and mistakenly switch the pair of candelabras.

Powell was unflappable in the midst of many ludicrous plots during the 1930s, often with Myrna Loy as a co-conspirator. Here, he is pitted against a lovely czarist secret agent, played, in a large wardrobe, by the great Luise Rainer. In the two immediately preceding films for which she won back-to-back Oscars ("The Great Ziegfeld" with Powell and "The Good Earth" with Paul Muni) and in her only other readily available film, "The Great Waltz," she suffered mightily. In "Candlesticks" she got a chance to play the kind of glamorous clothes horse role in which Marlene Dietrich specialized, with no occasion for jealousy at all. Dietrich and Greta Garbo both played spies in 1930s movies. Each appeared more sophisticated than Rainer's, but I find Rainer more credible as a spy with regrets about the consequences of her occupation than either Dietrich or Garbo. Rainer was also quite beautiful with high cheekbones and eyebrows as plucked as Dietrich, and received star keylighting from MGM.

Back in a gilded cage, Robert Young got a chance to be charming and gallant, impeded by the humorous bumbling minder played by Frank Morgan.

Perhaps because I was not very familiar with Luise Rainier performances (beyond "The Good Earth," which movie I didn't like), I was impressed by her in "The Emperor's Candlesticks." I use the conditional because of comments by others here.

Nevertheless, I found her charming, even entrancing.

William Powell gave his usual masterful best and all the other players were intriguing.

There were lots of "other players," too, and that each managed to be individualistic speaks of their own talents and of that of the director and script writer.

The movie was well directed, generally, and the script presented a view of a world long gone that we might otherwise never get to see.

It's a good yarn, with meshing stories of intrigue, and an adventure of an international race against the clock.

I recommend this as a must-see movie on many levels.