The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
Directed By: Paul Czinner
Written By: Marjorie Deans, Arthur Wimperis
Starring: Elisabeth Bergner, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Flora Robson
Length: 94 min.
Genre: Historical Drama
The story of how Princess Sophie Auguste Frederika of Anhalt-Zerbst became Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.
The movie starts with Grand Duke Peter declaring he doesn't wish to be married and storms off as Princess Sophie (soon to be named Catherine) is walking to meet him. After she arrives and finds the Grand Duke has run off, Sophie also runs off, declaring she will not marry him either. Wouldn't you know it, the two run into each other having no idea who the other is. She wins him over, he finds out who she is and then he leads her back where they came from and announces he will marry her.
The Grand Duke turns out to be one easily manipulated and insecure man. On his wedding night, someone makes an offhand comment about Sophie using her "womanly charms" on him. This causes him to cheat on Sophie on their wedding night. And then he continues to spend his time drinking and whoring.
She eventually does win Peter over for a time (because she keeps loving him despite him being a total chad), but when Empress Elizabeth dies, Peter takes full control and begins a public affair which ends in Peter going out of his way to humiliate Catherine. In the end, Catherine seizes the throne in a coup d'état.
I didn't like this one. A lot of times, Catherine came off as naive. Other times, just downright stupid. I know it's hard to have historical dramas be free of contemporary morality, but it was pretty thick in this one.
There was one scene that felt incredibly anachronistic. When Empress Elizabeth dies, Grand Duke Peter takes over, even though it's pretty much an open secret that Catherine had been running the empire for some time now. Peter takes control and tells Catherine (paraphrasing but the last line is word-for-word) "We're drawing up new laws for government. There will be no more women in positions of power. You'll be back in the kitchen where you belong!"
Back in the kitchen? Since when the hell is an empress, whether the head of state or married to the head of state, ever 'in the kitchen'? It just felt like such an absurd thing to say.
It's also incredibly fast paced as it's trying to get to every major moment in Catherine's rise. Obviously, not very historically accurate, and I didn't think it was particularly well acted either. And no creativity at all in the camera (I know, I've become a film snob). Not a good movie.
My Rating: 4/10
IMDB User Rating: 6.5/10 (510 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A Critics, 53% of Audience (3.4 / 5 ; 41 votes)