Scarlet Dawn

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars with Nancy Carroll and Lilyan Tashman in "Scarlet Dawn," a precode film from 1932.

Fairbanks plays a Russian baron, Nikita, who finds himself caught in the Russian Revolution, where he becomes one of the common people and realizes that he has no skills and needs a job.

He's nearly caught but after lying to the Reds, they take him to be identified and ask a servant, Tanyusha (Nancy Carroll) where he was staying about him. She plays along that he's not a baron, and he's released.

Nikita takes off for Istanbul (called by its old name here, Constantinople), and she follows. They marry; he gets a job washing dishes, and she gets one scrubbing floors.

The restaurant boss gives him a chance as busboy, he encounters an old love Vera (Lilyan Tashman) at the table. She waits for him outside and encourages him to go to Paris with her, where they can swindle a man and his daughter and enjoy some semblance of their old life.

Nikita agrees to go and tells Tanyusha that he will be sending her money and will return.

This film runs slightly under an hour, uses footage from the real Revolution or old Russia, I guess, and has that old trick of the paper showing headlines in Russian and then fading to English. Cracked me up.

For me the only good thing was Fairbanks, whom I love, and who always managed to hand in a performance that stands the test of time. He's handsome and sexy here, despite his sexual harassment of Tanyusha before they marry.

I'd say skip it.