A Woman Commands

Pola Negri stars as Maria, a singer and "user of men" whose latest consort has been Russian military Captain Alex (Basil Rathbone). Alexei has disgraced himself by going into debt to provide for Maria's lavish lifestyle, and when Alexei is basically banished to a remote outpost by his commanding officer (H. B. Warner), Maria leaves town as well. She later meets a new lover, one who turns out to be none other than King Alexander (Roland Young) himself. Despite the scandal, the two wed, but when Alex returns it might not be the end of just the King's marriage, but his kingdom as well. Also featuring Reginald Owen, Anthony Bushell, May Boely, Frank Reicher, George Baxter, and David Newell.

This was the first sound film for international silent star Pola Negri. I can see how she was a silent star, but her thick accent makes some of her lines unintelligible, if not laughable. Rathbone is good, at times desperate, at other times vengeful, ably playing a romantic lead. Less easy to take as a serious romantic figure is Roland Young as the King, and I wanted to chuckle through many of his scenes. The costumes are opulent and the sets large and exquisitely appointed. Some of the larger crowd scenes, with dozens of extras, are impressive in scale.

Pola Negri sells all her jewelry to pay lover Basil Rathbone's debts. He is assigned to a small, distant post. She becomes a cabaret singer, and goes on tour. When she returns to the small Mitteleuropean country, she captivates King Roland Young, who marries her. The uproar causes a revolution.

I find the whole thing to be a bit dull, an attempt to vary Ruritanian fiction with the sort of high-falutin' piffle of noble, suffering women who do their duty and take their consequences. Miss Negri is good, but her Polish accent makes her difficult to follow. Rathbone makes it clear that at this stage in his career, he was the British equivalent of Conrad Veidt, without quite the brains. Roland Young is not the mumbling fool he played so engagingly in a comedy, but he acquits himself handsomely.

Miss Negri also sings well, but the entire movie has not aged well, if indeed it played particularly well at the time. By 1932, talkies had begun to move well again, but this one is simply ponderous.

This is a great film - My copy came from a very poor 16mm print with very scratchy sound, but none the less - it is still a wonderful movie - Pola is radiant. I understand why this movie was not popular at the time - it really is a bit of fluff, but the actors give whole hearted performances and Pola's rendition of the song "Paradise" make this film worth while. It can be hoped that one day a better print will be made widely available.

Though I was put off the by the rather rushed-in "Deus Ex Machina" of its ending and even a tad confused whether I was watching a comedy or a drama, the witty writing (the "Get me the colonel with the scrambled alphabet for a name on the phone!" springs to mind), I was pleasantly surprised at how at ease most of the cast seemed to be with the plot - makes me wonder if ad libs were prevalent in it - be it Roland Young as relaxed as he would be several years later opposite Cary Grant in "Topper", or even this unknown (to me, at least, but I'm sure to compensate that by chasing more titles with her in it) May Boley, whose clever and cheeky dialogues made up for a very subtle (though tongue-in-cheek) comedy relief. Both these two aforementioned performances would make me rate it 3 stars already. But Pola Negri's dominant presence, alongside her vocal talent and even voice talent, as defied by her royal consort ("This holier-than-thou attitude is becoming more annoying than amusing") is what really makes this a joy to watch!

Anyway, without incurring into spoilers; to be perfectly honest, the shameless plot device described at the beginning of this review, is preferable, and even fits the surprises hidden in this production better than a "Mary of Scotland" sort of ending - as the same RKO studios would produce a couple of years later - and much more becoming to the latter, it must be said.