The Last Command (1928)

A broken Russian emigre (Emil Jannings in an Oscar winning performance), who was once a great General in the Imperial Russian army during the revolution, is struggling to survive in Hollywood and working as a background actor in the movies. Hand picked by a film director (William Powell) to play a general during the 1917 revolution in his new film, Jannings recalls the events of ten years before that lead to his present situation. Based on a real situation that Ernst Lubitsch related to writer Lajos Biro who then wrote the story, this Josef von Sternberg film is a beautifully mounted and ambitious film. von Sternberg doesn't let the sweep of the film's epic story overshadow the central character. Jannings is superb and does a fine job of delineating the washed out General, who seems to have palsy of some kind, of the present and the strutting and confident leader of the Imperial forces. Based on the film's unflattering portrayal of the rabid revolutionaries, it appears the von Sternberg's sympathies may lie with Czarist Russia. Lovely Evelyn Brent (DOCKS OF NEW YORK is the fervent revolutionary who sells out her ideals as Janning's mistress. The print I saw had a highly effective underscore by Robert Israel.