Mayerling

The story of the perceived (other conspiracy theories are available!) double-suicide of Archduke Rudolph of Austria and his teenage lover Baroness Marie Vetsera at Mayerling in 1889 is one of the great royal dynastic tragedies of the 19th Century and has even been named a contributory factor in the outbreak of the First World War some 25 years later.

In this French-language version by Ukranian director Anatole Litvak, we get a highly-romanticised version of the story with Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux as the star-crossed but ill-fated lovers.

The direction throughout is stylish and tasteful, Litvak impressing in his recreation of the Viennese Court with its surface splendour barely concealing the jostling for position and rumour-mongering beneath the facade. Boyer and Darrieux are excellent in their lead roles, his character the reforming, rebellious heir to the throne, unhappy in his arranged marriage and she the youthful, highly-impressionable innocent caught up in the first great passion of her life.

The concluding climax is sensitively and humanely depicted too with my only major criticisms of the film being an over-reliance on the use of the no-doubt in-vogue montage sequences and a tendency to slightly overstay the camera's welcome in certain scenes.

Nevertheless, this was a fine retelling of the notorious scandal and it's no surprise that its artistic and commercial success lured director Litvak to Hollywood where he enjoyed a distinguished career for many years.

In my reviews of the 1968 Terence Young version,I've already told my thoughts on the historical facts.There's no need to get back on it:suffice to say the true story was not as romantic as sensitive people still thinks so today.

Anatole Litvak does not pass over in silence Rudolph's dissoluteness, as two orgy scenes testify.Besides,Charles Boyer is a much better archduke than Omar Shariff.Ditto Danielle Darrieux who was about 20 (whereas Catherine Deneuve was nearing 25 when she played Mary),thus a more credible baroness Vetsera .Both versions,it's important to notice ,are from Claude Anet's NOVEL.It's not a historian's work and it should be not looked upon so.

However,Litvak is a better director than Terence Young.With a much smaller budget,and of course without the 1968 technical aids ,he works wonders :the tiny church where Rudolph meets Mary in half-light creates a mystical and heathen atmosphere at once.The night at the opera house is dazzling.To conclude the scene of the ball at the German embassy ,the artist uses a stunning tracking out which leaves the swirling twirling dancers,then stops on a glass door adorned with the Habsburg emblem.Rudolphe ,firing at his reflection in a mirror is an adequate metaphor.

A minor flaw:Gabrielle Dorziat is completely miscast as Sissi ,Rudolph's mother:she was one of the most beautiful women of her time (we can see the magnificent Winterhalter portraits at the beginning of the movie).At fifty,when the Mayerling tragedy occurred,her beauty was still incomparable.She had nothing to do with the aging dowager we see on the screen (in Young 's version,it's Ava Gardner!)

And hats off to Danielle Darrieux who ,sixty-four years after "Mayerling" ,recently triumphed in "8 femmes",a blockbuster in France.Any advance?

I first saw this movie about 20 years ago in SBS Channel in Sydney, Australia. The movie was in the French language so I had to read the subtitles. It is a very old movie in B&W but it was a very enchanting movie. Danielle Darrieux was perfect for the role of the beautiful Anna Vetsera. Her acting was also perfect (for an innocent girl madly in-love with her prince). Whether the real Anna Vetsera was as innocent is beside the point. The movie was based on the true story of the love affair between the Archduke Rudolf (heir to the throne of Austria- Hungary) and his young mistress Baroness Anna Vetsera. They committed a suicide (or murder-suicide?) in 1889 in the Archduke's hunting lodge in Mayerling. Afterwards the title of Archduke passed on to the emperor's nephew, Franz Ferdinand (who became heir). Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in July 1914 in Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina which sparked the First World War. This movie has a very sad ending, with both lovers dying in the end. But the implications for the real world in that era was most terrible. It is a great wonder today whether there would have been war in 1914 had Rudolf lived and remained heir.

Recently, I was able to obtain a copy of the this movie and saw it again after 20 years. The movie did not disappoint and I can say that it is one of the best movies ever. It must have been such a sensation when first released in 1936.

When Mayerling came out in France, Great Britain was facing a similar situation that the former Hapsburg Empire was facing in 1889. Only their bachelor Crown Prince was about to become a king. But Edward VIII insisted it would not be without the women he loved. He found a way out that was less bloody than Crown Prince Rudolf Von Hapsburg did.

Indeed Emperor Franz Joseph lived on and on and on. He did not die until 1916 and the Empire would die with the end of World War I when so many new states were created in Europe. But when people do start getting old the succession in the dynasty becomes important.

Charles Boyer plays the dissolute and dissipated Crown Prince Rudolf who always gets a following whether he wants it or not in any monarchy. He's got more liberal views than his father played here by Jean Dax. What's not covered here is that Franz Joseph when he assumed the throne in 1848 was a rather serious minded youth of the age of 17, a total contrast to his kid. It made for continual conflict exacerbated by court politics.

The Crown Prince was more interested in letting the good times roll like there was no tomorrow. The Emperor has already arranged a match which the Prince has reluctantly agreed to as per his duty to the state. But then he meets Danielle Darrieux who plays Marie Vetsera who is of minor nobility not quite up to Hapsburg standards. After that he wants only to be with her. And she wants only him, not even the crown if he has to give it up.

Rudolf was a momma's boy in every sense of the word. The Empress Elizabeth married Franz Joseph and she was a wild child herself. Her story is covered in the Grace Moore/Franchot Tone movie The King Steps Out. Although she's at court here in this film, most of the years of her reign she lived apart from the Emperor partaking of the various resorts at places like Baden-Baden and Biarritz. Actress Gabrielle Dorziat plays Sissi and she sympathizes with her son, but not much she can do. Boyer and Dorziat have a very emotional scene covering that.

Darrieux all wide eyed and innocent does a wonderful job as the luckless Marie Vetsara. Boyer scores well as the tragic Rudolf who would just not settle down to his responsibilities.

With the British monarchy crisis in the news in America and everywhere else but the British Empire, Mayerling found an interested audience in 1936. Anatole Litvak directed it and he, Boyer, and Darrieux would be in America soon enough. Boyer was already here, but returned to France for this film. No doubt he was cast for box office reasons in the foreign markets, most especially the American one.

All of them delivered a fine film.

This is the original movie version of the murder/suicide pact between Archduke Rudolph, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and his mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera. Made in France and subtitled for the English speaking audience, it stars Charles Boyer as Rudolph and Danielle Darrieux as Marie. Boyer obviously appeared to better advantage in French films... .....his whole persona appears different than that in his American roles. His interpretation of Rudolph is one of a tortured man who does not have much to do while waiting around to inherit the throne, so he dallies with Marie Vetsera and falls in love with her. Danielle Darrieux is bewitching as the Baroness.

The story unfolds to the inevitable conclusion of murder/suicide which threw the Empire into turmoil. History may record the events of what happened at Mayerling a little differently but it surely makes a good story of thwarted love and royal politics. The 1968 remake with Omar Shariff and Catherine Deneuve is not bad either. This legendary romance has fascinated people since the turn of the century. So have the Kleenex handy and enjoy!!