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The Scarlet Empress (1934) -- J. von Sternberg
My, there seem to be a
lot of shots of horses and references to horses (even one early line, "we
could have the horses stabled in your bedroom, if you like" or something
like that, which is shocking taken out of context, as it is here) in von
Sternberg's biopic about Catherine the Great (really, even at the end, Marlene
Dietrich is on the throne with her arm around a horse who is nuzzling her). But
of course von Sternberg couldn't have been fooling with the Hays Office
censors, could he? The rest of the movie simply focuses on how Catherine uses
her sexual resources to get the army to help her overthrow her imbecilic
husband, Peter the III. So, in 1934, the censors weren't paying much attention.
And von Sternberg shoots Dietrich through gauze, on beds, amongst crazy
statuary, and in front of mock Russian icons, with characters who don't care
that they have heavy American accents, with the 1812 overture playing during
the 1750s, and just makes a crazy baroque thing.
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