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The opening credits are slipped under a closed door, as befits an Ernst Lubitsch production seconded by Otto Preminger. Catherine the Great, "mother of all Russias," Tallulah Bankhead exulting in piquant hauteur and antique-smashing tantrums. "Even in her most furious moments, Her Majesty shows exquisite taste." In the world of marbled interiors, the lieutenant (William Eythe) enters through a secret passageway and tickles her fancy with his youth and ardor. He promptly ascends the ranks, the idealistic boy-toy in white uniform, his bride (Anne Baxter) is also the Czarina's lady-in-waiting. "Domestic affairs," meanwhile a palatial coup brews. "How's the revolution?" "Fine, thank you." Lubitsch storyboards for the Preminger camera to glide through, the quick-witted aperçu and the reframing movement handsomely brought together. (The line of inquiry continues in Forever Amber, Saint Joan and Advise and Consent.) The glass of champagne replaces the reformist scroll, the pas de deux builds to a firing squad and the ash bin of history. "I put you on a pedestal and you put me in a trash basket!" The French ambassador (Vincent Price) waits patiently for his turn, the usurping general (Sig Ruman) is a bumbler with a disinterested nephew, Grady Sutton in a peruke, no less. The chancellor (Charles Coburn) knows best how to navigate the system: "You see, I'm used to these parquet floors. I can walk on them. I can dance on them. I can slide on them." The comedy of shifts in power, the St. Petersburg monarch who survives to annex Crimea. "A woman who takes someone else's fiancé won't respect anybody's peninsula." Visconti takes another tack in Senso. With Mischa Auer, Vladimir Sokoloff, and Mikhail Rasumny. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |