Director Max Ophüls surrounded Martine Carol (Lola Montès) with a solid cast, headed by Anton Walbrook as King Ludwig I, Oskar Werner as a student revolutionary, and Sir Peter Ustinov as the ringmaster. He shot this movie in Germany, Austria, and France in three different versions, French, German, and English (Ustinov wrote the English-language dialogue). Then he worked with three different editors, each in his own room, on the three different versions.
In the nude painting of Lola commissioned by King Ludwig, she is posed identically to the model in the 1814 painting "Grand Odalisque" by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
Famed film critic Andrew Sarris wrote "Lola Montès (1955) is in my unhumble opinion the greatest film of all time." He introduced the restoration at the New York Film Festival in 2008. He later decided that the greatest movie of all time is Madame de... (1953), by the same director, Max Ophüls.
This is the only movie to be shown at three New York Film Festivals.