Drama
History
Romance
Spies on opposite sides fall in love in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Directors
William Powell
Baron Stephan Wolensky
Luise Rainer
Countess Olga Mironova
Robert Young
Grand Duke Peter
Maureen O'Sullivan
Maria Orlich
Frank Morgan
Colonel Baron Suroff
Henry Stephenson
Prince Johann
Bernadene Hayes
Mitzi Reisenbach
Donald Kirke
Anton, the Thief
Douglass Dumbrille
Mr. Korum, a Conspirator
Charles Waldron
Dr. Malchor, a Conspirator
Ian Wolfe
Leon, a Conspirator
Barnett Parker
Albert, Stephan's Butler
Frank Reicher
Pavloff
Bert Roach
Hotel Clerk
Paul Porcasi
Santuzzi
E. E. Clive
Auctioneer
Emma Dunn
Anna - Olga's Housekeeper
Frank Conroy
Col. Radoff
Directors
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User reviews1
Review
Featured review
Based on the Baroness Orczy tale of Russian Imperial espionage, this is actually quite a fun, if insubstantial, historical drama. It all centres around attempts to free a Polish dissident from prison. At the time, Poland was a vassal of the Czar, and so a group of influential Poles coerce the Grand Duke "Peter" (Robert Young) to write to his father imploring his intervention. What's this got to do with candlesticks, you might think? Well these clever little ornate gadgets have secret compartments - easy enough to smuggle a letter in. When they are inadvertently moved, then sold-on a few times it falls to Polish agent "Wolensky" (William Powell) to stay one step ahead of his Czarist protagonist "Countess Mironova" (Luise Rainer) and recover them before their secret is discovered and heads start to roll. Of course, you just know that these two are going to start to fall for each other, and sadly that is where the thriller element of this film starts to give way to the romantic one, and once we are in full slush mode, the whole thing rather falls away as we approach an ending that offers us little by way of jeopardy. It's a good looking film, though. Plenty of attractive people in attractive costumes; there is some chemistry between Powell and Rainer and Frank Morgan is quite fun as "Baron Suroff". Franz Waxman provides us with a rather unremarkably derivative score though - a sort of "Scarlet Empress" (1934) type affair that doesn't really help the rather uninspiring dialogue. It's my kind of genre and the Baroness did know how to conjure up a good intrigue, but this is all just a bit too join-the dots.
Geronimo196717 Sep, 2022
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