''The Last Command'' is a 1928
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
directed by
Josef von Sternberg, and written by John F. Goodrich and
Herman J. Mankiewicz from a story by
Lajos Bíró. Star
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The La ...
won the first
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The a ...
at the 1929 ceremony for his performances in this film and ''
The Way of All Flesh,'' the only year that multiple roles were considered. In 2006, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
and selected for the
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
. The supporting cast includes
Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress.
Early life
Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...
and
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters cr ...
.
Plot
In 1928
Hollywood, director Leo Andreyev (
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters cr ...
) looks through photographs for actors for his next movie. When he comes to the picture of an aged Sergius Alexander (
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The La ...
), he pauses, then tells his assistant (
Jack Raymond
Jack Raymond (1886–1953) was an English actor and film director. Born in Wimborne, Dorset in 1886, he began acting before the First World War in '' A Detective for a Day''. In 1921 he directed his first film and gradually he wound down his a ...
) to cast the man. Sergius shows up at the Eureka Studio with a horde of other extras and is issued a general's uniform. As he is dressing, another actor complains that his continual head twitching is distracting. Sergius apologizes and explains that it is the result of a great shock he once experienced.
The film then
flashes back ten years to
Czarist Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...
, which is in the midst of the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, the Czar's cousin and commander of all his armies, is informed by his
adjutant that two actors entertaining the troops have been identified as dangerous "revolutionists" during a routine passport check. He decides to toy with them for his amusement. When one of them, Leo Andreyev, becomes insolent, Sergius whips him across the face and has him jailed.
Leo's companion, the beautiful Natalie Dabrova (
Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress.
Early life
Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...
), is an entirely different matter. She intrigues Sergius. Despite the danger she poses, he takes her along with him. After a week, he gives her a pearl necklace as a token of his feelings for her. She comes to realize that he is at heart a man of great honor who loves Russia as deeply as she does. When she invites him to her room, he spots a partially hidden pistol, but deliberately turns his back to her. She draws the weapon, but cannot fire. Despite their political differences, she has fallen in love with him.
When the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s capture the train on which they are traveling, she pretends to despise him. Instead of having him shot out of hand like his officers, she suggests they have him stoke coal into the locomotive all the way to Petrograd, where he will be publicly hanged. This however is a ruse to keep him alive and, when everyone on board is drunk, she helps him escape, giving him back the pearl necklace to finance his way out of the country. Sergius jumps from the train, then watches in horror as it tumbles off a nearby bridge into the icy river below, taking Natalie with it. This moment is when Sergius develops his head twitch.
Ten years later, Sergius is reduced to
poverty, eking out a living as a Hollywood extra. When he and the director finally meet, Sergius recognizes him. Leo, in an ironic act calculated to humiliate him, casts him as a Russian general in a battle scene. He is directed to give a speech to a group of actors playing his dispirited men. When one soldier tries to incite a mutiny, telling the general that "you've given your last command", he whips the man in the face as instructed, just as he had once struck Leo. Losing his grip on reality, he imagines himself genuinely on the battlefield, besieged by enemies, and passionately urges his men to fight for Russia. Overstraining himself, he dies, inquiring with his last words if they have won. Moved, Leo tells him they have. The assistant remarks, "That guy was a great actor." Leo replies, "He was more than a great actor - he was a great man."
Cast
*
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The La ...
as Grand Duke Sergius Alexander
*
Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress.
Early life
Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...
as Natalie "Natacha" Dabrova
*
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters cr ...
as Leo Andreyev
*
Jack Raymond
Jack Raymond (1886–1953) was an English actor and film director. Born in Wimborne, Dorset in 1886, he began acting before the First World War in '' A Detective for a Day''. In 1921 he directed his first film and gradually he wound down his a ...
as the Assistant Director
*
Nicholas Soussanin
Nicholas Soussanin (born 16 January 1889, Yalta, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Crimea, Ukraine) – 27 April 1975, New York City) was an actor from the Russian Empire who settled and worked in the United States. He was married ...
as the Adjutant
*
Michael Visaroff
Michael Simeon Visaroff (December 18, 1889 – February 27, 1951) was a Russian American film character actor.
Biography
Visaroff was born Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov ( Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров) in Moscow, ...
as the Bodyguard
*
Fritz Feld
Fritz Feld (October 15, 1900 – November 18, 1993) was a German-American film character actor who appeared in over 140 films in 72 years, both silent and sound. His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a "pop" s ...
as A revolutionist.
Background
Proving the Hollywood adage that movie directors are "only as good as their last picture", Sternberg was given a free hand by Paramount when ''
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...
'' (1927) proved to be "an instant success".
The following three years experienced the industry-wide transition from silent to sound technology, during which Sternberg completed ''The Last Command'' (1928), ''
The Drag Net
''The Drag Net'', also known as ''The Dragnet'', is a 1928 American silent crime drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures based on the story "Nightstick" by Oliver H.P. Garrett. It was directed by Josef v ...
'' (1929) and ''
The Case of Lena Smith'' (1929), his last silent works, and his first
talkie
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
, ''
Thunderbolt
A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hel ...
'', in 1929. Though these films were praised by critics for their distinct style, none achieved great box-office success.
Before embarking on ''The Last Command'', Paramount tasked Sternberg with editing portions of director
Erich von Stroheim’s ''
The Wedding March'' (1928), as well as writing the screenplay for director
Mauritz Stiller
Mauritz Stiller (born Moshe Stiller, 17 July 1883 – 18 November 1928) was a Swedish film director of Finnish Jewish origin, best known for discovering Greta Garbo and bringing her to America.
Stiller had been a pioneer of the Swedish film ...
’s ''
The Street of Sin
''The Street of Sin'' (1928) is an American silent film directed by Mauritz Stiller. It starred Emil Jannings, Fay Wray and Olga Baclanova. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Preservation status
The film is now considered a lost film. ''.
[Sarris, 1966. P. 16]
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...
told newspaper columnist Gilbert Swan that the background story for ''The Last Command'' had a real-life inspiration: a General in the Imperial Russian Army named Theodore A. Lodigensky whom Lubitsch had met in Russia, and again in New York, where he had opened a Russian restaurant after fleeing the communist revolution.
Lubitsch encountered the ex-general once more, when the latter appeared in full uniform looking for work as an extra at $7.50 a day,
[ the same rate as Sergius. Lubitsch later told Lajos Bíró the anecdote.] Under the name Theodore Lodi, Lodigensky went on to play a handful of roles between 1929 and 1935, including Grand Duke Michael, a Russian exile who is forced to work as a hotel doorman in the 1932 film ''Down to Earth''.
Production
In 1927, Paramount’s sister film company in Germany, Ufa
Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...
, yielded its foremost actor Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The La ...
and producer Erich Pommer to make a number of movies in Hollywood. Sternberg and Jannings had established a friendly rapport when they met in Berlin in 1925.[Baxter, 1971. P. 44]
Jannings starred in director Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...
’s '' The Patriot'' and in Victor Fleming’s '' The Way of All Flesh'', but his performance in ''The Last Command'' surpassed these two productions.
The source of the script for the film has been termed “somewhat controversial”. Paramount attributed the original story entitled “The General” to screenwriter Lajos Bíró, the scenario to John S. Goodrich, and the titles to Herman J. Mankiewicz. Nevertheless, Sternberg's significant additions and alterations to the plot are “incontestable” and form the basis of his claim to “ultimate authorship” of this cinematic "masterpiece."
''The Last Command'' was among “the most ambitious Sternberg ever shot”. The shooting was completed in five weeks.
The release of ''The Last Command'' was stalled when Paramount executives reviewed the film and discovered that Sternberg had inserted material portraying Hollywood as heartless and cynical. They further complained that he had historically misrepresented the Russian Revolution, including "recognizable portraits of Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...
and the young Stalin". Only under duress from a wealthy Paramount stockholder did the studio relent and distribute the film. This was the "only time in his career that Sternberg confronted his own craft as a subject."
Reception
Despite opening to “remarkable critical success” and eliciting “ecstatic reviews”, the box-office profits never materialized.
American playwright and filmmaker Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film '' The Great McGinty'' (1940), h ...
declared ''The Last Command'' "perhaps the only perfect picture he had ever seen."
Despite its "commercial failure" the movie garnered a nomination for Best Original story, and Emil Jannings took the Oscar for Best Performance at the 1st Academy Awards
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from 1 August 1927 to 31 July 1928 and took place on May 1 ...
.
Author and film critic Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
awarded ''The Last Command'' four out of four stars, calling it "A fascinating story laced with keen perceptions of life and work in Hollywood.
Theme
The themes presented in ''The Last Command'' reflect Sternberg’s obsession as a film poet, exhibiting “a continuous stream of emotional autobiography” and “ most strikingly defines the importance for Sternberg of the intertwined themes of desire, power and instability of identity.”
Jannings’ General Sergius Alexander, an imperious member of the Russian Czar's royal family, is punished for his arrogance – not once, but twice: first stripped of prestige and power by the Bolshevik Revolution, and then reduced to a Hollywood extra performing a burlesque of his former stature. Flashback sequences reveal his precipitous descent, a fate that provided Jannings with the opportunity to exhibit “the extremes of his talent.”[Baxter, 1971. P. 46-47]
In this “saga of decline and fall” – the most "Pirandellian" of Sternberg's films – the characters engage in a “desperate struggle for psychic survival hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
grants them a measure of heroic stature and stoic calm.”
In a “performance of remarkable depth”, Evylen Brent's Bolshevik Revolutionary Natacha Dabrova develops “a relationship with Jannings as complex as anything in modern cinema.”
On Sternberg's handling of Brent's Natacha, Film historian Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism.
Early life
Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Katav ...
wrote: “ he like all Sternbergian women, remains enigmatic beyond the demands of the plot. Her perverse nature operates beyond good and evil, beyond the convenient categories of virgins and vamps. What is unusual about Sternberg’s direction is that…he seeks to control performances not for the sake of simplicity, but for the sake of complexity.”
Sarris concludes his thematic analysis with this paradox:
Home media
In 2010, The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...
released a DVD set of three von Sternberg films: ''The Last Command'', ''Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...
'' and ''The Docks of New York
''The Docks of New York'' is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring George Bancroft, Betty Compson, and Olga Baclanova. The movie was adapted by Jules Furthman from the John Monk Saunders story ''The Dock ...
''.
The film's copyright was renewed, and therefore will not fall into the public domain until January 1, 2024.
References
Footnotes
Sources
* Baxter, John. 1971. ''The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg''. The International Film Guide Series. A.S Barners & Company, New York.
*Baxter, Peter, 1993. ''Just Watch! Paramount, Sternberg and America''. British Film Institute, BFI Publishing.
* Higham, Charles. 1973. ''The Art of the American Film: 1900-1971.'' Doubleday & Company, Inc. New York. . Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 70-186026.
*Sarris, Andrew, 1966. ''The Films of Josef von Sternberg''. New York: Doubleday.
*Sarris, Andrew. 1998. “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet.” The American Talking Film History & Memory, 1927-1949. Oxford University Press.
* Weinberg, Herman G., 1967. ''Josef von Sternberg. A Critical Study''. New York: Dutton.
External links
*
*
*
''The Last Command''
at Virtual History
''The Last Command: Illusions and Delusions''
an essay by Anton Kaes at the Criterion Collection
*''The Last Command'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010 , pages 138-13
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Command, The
1928 films
1920s war drama films
American romantic drama films
American silent feature films
American war drama films
American black-and-white films
Films about Hollywood, Los Angeles
Films directed by Josef von Sternberg
Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award-winning performance
Films set in the 1910s
Films set in the 1920s
Paramount Pictures films
Films with screenplays by Herman J. Mankiewicz
United States National Film Registry films
1928 romantic drama films
1920s American films
Silent romantic drama films
Silent war films
Silent American drama films