Word: tsars
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...Last Command (Emil Jannings) is the story of a cousin to the late Russian Tsar who, after the fume and flames of the revolution,, found his way to the dreary door-steppes of a Hollywood studio...
...plot of the picture goes back to what he remembers, sitting in the cinema dressing room over a makeup table. He remembers himself as General Dolgorucki, a gaudy young officer, commander-in-chief of the Tsar's army. Two revolutionists come to this young officer to have their passports examined; a beautiful actress and her friend, a young theatre manager. The Tsar's cousin sends the man to prison for an impertinence and asks the girl to have dinner with...
...over this recollection, General Dolgorucki sees his face in the mirror over the dressing-room table. The cinema director, whom he recognizes as the revolutionist he sent to prison so long ago, gives him a costume like the one he wore when he was the cousin of a living Tsar. Then the director sends the sad actor, once more a gaudy captain, into a mock battle. Leading Hollywood soldiers across a fabricated battlefield, the Russian nobleman forgets pretense. After relieving for a moment a similar scene in his remembrance, General Dolgorucki dies, not in pretense but in actuality...
...actuality, Cinemactor Jannings was no cousin of the Tsar before he appeared upon the screen. He was a member of famed Max Reinhardt's theatrical troupe, played Shakespearean repertory as now presented in Manhattan. He was persuaded to appear in the cinema by famed director Ernst Lubitsch, a onetime stock-company companion, then with a German film company. He has since pleased with performances in Faust, The Way of All Flesh, Variety...
...Unfortunately the matter cannot end there. The machine has cast out of the party men whose prestige with the Russian masses is as great or greater than that of those who remain in. Moreover Trotsky, Zinoviev and their followers are zealous trained and successful revolutionaries. The despotism of the Tsar could not curb them. It remains...