A Royal Scandal (1945)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A drawing room comedy can find a limited audience in almost any era, but this is 2013. I am not sure about 40's audiences, but nowadays, "A Royal Scandal" ain't going over. I am old enough to appreciate subtle humor but this picture is far too subtle for today's average viewer. I think Lubitsch needed more of a hand in this production, even though he is the nominal producer. He was taken ill and directorial duties were handed over to Otto Preminger.In any case, it is another chance to view a national treasure in Talullah Bankhead, who made very few movies - and that's our loss. She gets good support from Charles Coburn, and not much from William Eythe. His performance was one-note and strident and he seemed ill-at-ease as her officer-lover. He was billed as the 'next Tyrone Power', who was himself an underrated actor. I felt Eythe nearly sank the picture by himself with his shrill heavy-handedness. Vincent Price plays the French ambassador, and with a very bad French accent.I just felt that this picture was not in the same league with other Lubitsch films and his definitive touch was not so much in evidence. It was disappointing in this regard, and the script needed to be funnier.

This was begun by Ernst Lubitsch (who also produced) but, after suffering a heart attack, handed over the directorial reins to Preminger (who eventually received sole credit for it!) – as would happen all over again 3 years later when Lubitsch died early on during the production of the Ruritanian Technicolor musical THAT LADY IN ERMINE (1948)! The film under review is actually a Talkie remake of Lubitsch's Silent success FORBIDDEN PARADISE (1924; which seems to be available solely via an incomplete print boasting Czech intertitles!). It is yet another movie dealing with the reign of Catherine II of Russia, known as "The Great"; however, this was made at Fox instead of Paramount (Lubitsch had been Head Of Production there at the time of Josef von Sternberg's magnificent THE SCARLET EMPRESS {1934}). The tone is very different, too: being a comic romantic soufflé as opposed to a flamboyant epic (even if the Queen's various dalliances were still a major plot point of the Sternberg movie), this one ostensibly offered pure wartime escapism…but the result is so flat as to be insulting (depicting potentates as fickle figures concerning themselves with frivolities and rewarding soldiers over their bedroom antics rather than military tactics was hardly wise under such precarious circumstances!), much more so in fact than the accusations of bad taste levelled at Lubitsch's satirical – but not unfeeling – masterpiece TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)! Despite the typical studio gloss, a most able cast (led by Tallulah Bankhead as a not-so-young Catherine, Charles Coburn as her wily Chancellor, William Eythe breaking into the Palace bearing old news{!} but remaining to become the Queen's new favorite, Anne Baxter in an ALL ABOUT EVE {1950} dry-run as her lady-in-waiting and catty rival for the latter's affections, Vincent Price as the fey French ambassador who spends almost the entire running-time waiting to be received by Catherine{!}, a typically pompous Sig Rumann as the high-ranking officer planning a coup d'etat, Mischa Auer as a flustered sentry and Vladimir Sokoloff as a Palace adjutant) and a script by Edwin Justus Mayer (who also wrote the afore-mentioned Nazi lampoon), the film looks decidedly claustrophobic, is filled with deliberately overstated performances, and comes across as distinctly heavy-handed. Whether all this is the humorless Preminger's doing, however, is hard to determine – since, it must also be said, the famed "Lubitsch Touch" is barely in evidence throughout! Mind you, the picture is not unamusing per se (though hardly as witty as one would have expected given some of the people involved!) and it clearly gets by on sheer professionalism alone: what I find inexcusable is that such money and talent were squandered on an essentially silly, empty charade – and an incessantly verbose one at that!

I just saw this gem of a movie as I was channel-surfing and came across it tonight on Turner Classic Movies. I knew nothing about the film, even less about the luminaries who made it except that one of the stars was Tallulah Bankhead. An enigma wrapped in a legend, I had heard about her since forever, but never had the opportunity to see her in her prime. What a surprise! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard during a movie. I am SO tired of stupidity and over-the-top absurdity masquerading as comedy! I don't understand what's so funny about either. Give me wit, subtlety, irony, and understated comedic acting any day.Perhaps this movie came out at the wrong time. The published date of 1946 must have been a time when tensions were building between the US and the Soviet Union, so I wonder how open the American audience would have been to the antics of pre-revolution Russia. And it doesn't sound as if Bankhead and the Hollywood press were the best of friends. But from this vantage point, this is one TIMELESS classic that will be enjoyed for what it's worth long after the silliness of today's comedies are seen as witless goofballs.What a shame Bankhead made so few movies, and William Eythe was taken from us so young! They both gave masterful performances and one totally underrated gem of a movie!

It took A ROYAL SCANDAL for me to realize that Tallulah Bankhead must have been wonderful on Broadway in THE LITTLE FOXES. Here, under Otto Preminger's direction, she gives a wonderfully restrained (for her) performance as Russia's Catherine the Great, shamelessly flaunting her loneliness in front of a man betrothed to another (ANNE BAXTER) but deciding that he looks fabulous in a white uniform (WILLIAM EYTHE).Bankhead and Eythe are reason enough to watch this one. For once, he had a role that showed he had talent that should have been nurtured into full fledged stardom, but never was. He bears a strong resemblance to Tyrone Power and handles his role with authority and ease.Bankhead seems on the verge of doing her Diva act at any given moment, but restricts herself to a few "Shut up!" remarks or slyly commenting on the fact that she'd like to do a lot for the peasants. She never misses an opportunity to give any slightly risqué line a clearer meaning, just from the way she glances or moves. It's a wonderfully entertaining performance.CHARLES COBURN, ANNE BAXTER, SIG RUMAN and others do their parts in fine form, but VINCENT PRICE is wasted in the role of the French ambassador who ends up becoming the new apple of Bankhead's eye. Baxter is particularly good at demonstrating that she could show flashes of temperament beneath the sweetness and charm.Best of all, the dialog is full of innocently delivered one-liners that make it one of the most enjoyable farces I've seen in years. And WILLIAM EYTHE shows that he had a talent for farce that should have landed him more such roles.Well worth watching for the performances alone.