Marie Antoinette (1938)

"I cannot wear my crown upon my heart."

Marie Antoinette of Austria (Norma Shearer) is to marry. Her King will be Louis XVI (Robert Morley) of France. Her excitement soon turns to dispair when she realizes that her new husband is the joke of the family with the inability to produce an heir. After years of solitude, she begins to enjoy her wealth by attending parties and galavanting with the royal family. Unfortunately, she puts her trust into the wrong people including those with a thirst for her power. Slowly, the people of France begin to act on their unrest and soon Marie Antoinette is void of a throne and in fear for her life.

Shearer seemed destined to play this role, and it is one of the films she is best remembered for. There is no doubt that her connections with studio head Irving Thalberg who was also her husband held some sway over her getting the part, but no one can say she was not talented enough to play it. She is radiant in the beginning of the film when the idea of being a queen is exciting and romantic. She changes over the course of two and a half hours as she learns just what it means to be royalty until she is a shadow of her former self, withered and broken. All of the other cast members pale in comparison to her including the highly praised John Barrymore who plays Louis XV.

Historically, this film is not quite accurate, although Morley's simple performance is somewhat true to Louis XVI. By this time, the artistocracy had been intermarrying for quite some time, so Louis XVI's genes showed the effects of inbreeding, including impotence. In truth, Marie Antoinette was a bit of a half-wit herself who had no sense of responsibility to her people and who spent her days playing peasant in a reconstructed village. Brought to film, these two would not make a respectable pair, so the facts were embellished for the sake of entertainment. August 19, 2008

Very Impressive!

I've seen the movie before and thought is was only Ok. Now I've seen the Sophia Coppola version and know more about Marie Antoinette's history. This movie is good and pretty accurate in many ways! I thought the Tyrone Power romance was a bit exaggerated and the weakest part of the movie. Norma Shearer and Robert Morley are really good and very engaging. The love between them is more believable and moving. There is a lot of sympathy for the rulers and I think that is accurate. Louis XIV just wasn't up to the job of ruling and it is was a very volatile time. The government was an absolute monarchy and it had no give. The system of governance that had existed for a hundred or more years left a large group of people who lived off the taxes of others. I did have to say I cried when Tyrone Power visits her at the end. Very sad. Highly recommended and very enjoyable. Watch this movie with A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Coleman, a great pair together. July 17, 2008

NORMA SHEARER SHINES!!!

I BET MANY PEOPLE HAVE NOT HEARD OF NORMA SHEARER THESE DAYS. I KNOW I HADN'T HEARD MUCH ABOUT HER. BUT, SHE REALLY "SHINES" IN THIS LOVELY MOVIE! IN FACT, ALL THE PERFORMANCES ARE VERY GREAT! THIS MOVIE IS "TIMELESS" REALLY! RECOMMENDED VERY HIGHLY!!! Boland7214@aol.com July 6, 2008

"Ma-MA, I am to be queen of FRAHNCE!"

Given the huge success MGM had with spectacle during the Great Depression--and particularly with THE GREAT ZIEGFELD in 1936--it was practically inevitable they would choose to mount a huge production of the life of Marie Antoinette, just so they could get Adrian to do the costumes. The French queen's life story was especially attractive for them to showcase their #1 stockholder, the recently widowed Norma Shearer, who favored playing the great romantic roles (such as Elizabeth Barrett and Juliet Capulet) after her marriage to the MGM chief of production Irving Thalberg ensured she'd get them. To be fair to Shearer, she was one of the biggest stars of the period even without her marriage to Thalberg, although she was much more fun in her sizzling sinner roles in contemporary films of the early Thirties (like RIPTIDE and A FREE SOUL) than in these noble romantic roles she played later. She does work hard, though, and if she gets to shout "Silence!" imperiously to her courtiers a few too many times (when she's not gurgling at them in coy delight), she's still quite likable in her early scenes where she manages to pull off her attempts at girlish coltishness quite convincingly. Her best scenes are with Robert Morley, who continues to impress (decades after the film was made) as Louis XVI, who is here suggested to be mentally limited: something about Morley seems to pull Shearer up to a higher level, and the two seem genuinely fond of one another.

John Barrymore is the corrupt old Louis XV; as Madame du Barry, Gladys George has a grand old time wearing great gowns and trading catty barbs with Shearer; Joseph Schildkraut gets to wear a heart-shaped beauty mark over his whitened face as the Duc d'Orleans to indicate he's the most thorough rotter in the whole piece. The sets are absolutely spectacular (some scenes were even shot at Versailles, a first for Hollywood), and the costumes even better; they make the whole film worth seeing even if the film does go on for too long. W. S. Van Dyke sometimes goes in for very conventional direction, but at other times genuinely surprises you with his intelligence and sensitivity--as when he engineers a great crane shot at Marie's grand ball which starts at the level of the hall where the aristocrats are dancing and then pulls up to a gallery far above where Morley, as the lonely and awkward Dauphin, watches his wife. May 20, 2008

Amazing!! Exceeded my expectation!!

This movie is so amazing! I enjoyed watching it, it has all the elements that makes a great movie. In my opinion, this movie is better than the recent Marie Antoinette movie, you get to related more to her in this one.

Beside the story line, what i thought was great is the choice of actors, the guy who was playing king louis fits the part perfectly, better than the one they choose for the recent movie!

I Highly Recommend Watching this movie! March 24, 2008

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