"The Last Command" Review

 

by Daniel White

Sidetracked by the death of Sidney Poitier (an homage was in order, prompting me to watch two of his movies), and then taking a feverish pit stop to view the entertaining, if outlandish There's No Business Like Show Business, I'm back basking in the brilliance of Josef von Sternberg.

Paramount's The Last Command (1928) was von Sternberg's first film after scoring a big critical success with Underworld (1927). Starring that favorite actor of the Nazi's, Emil Jannings, it's an engrossing story about a former Russian general (Jannings) and his fall from grace. Categorized as one the greatest silent films to be made on the eve of Hollywood's conversion to sound, The Last Command deserves all the praise that has been bestowed upon it.

The film begins and ends in La La land, where it depicts the heartbreaking struggle of Sergius Alexander as he attempts to eke out an existence as an extra in Hollywood. Pitiful, with a permanent case of palsy ("I had a great shock once"), the broken Alexander suffers one indignity after another, while struggling to earn his meager pay as a bit player. In one brilliant scene, he's shuffled from window to window, outfitted, then supplied with the props he will use for the day. Hollywood has turned the once powerful Russian military man into a nameless, Tinseltown nobody.

Josef von Sternberg is a great storyteller and here has been given a terrific story to tell. The middle part of the film is a flashback, set in 1917 Russia, an empire teetering on annihilation. Alexander is a loyal Czarist but not an unfeeling man, who cares about the soldiers under him. He begins an affair with a revolutionary (the seductive Evelyn Brent), and she reluctantly falls in love with her adversary, helping him to escape when the old regime crumbles to the communists.

Visually exciting, emotionally stirring, The Last Command is a prime example of the worth and importance of silent films.

Marlene Dietrich used to berate her old co-star from The Blue Angel, calling him an "old ham." Not at all true, not his performance here, anyway. Nuanced, controlled, a role that is a paean to pathos, Emil Jannings is a damn good player, and deservedly won the first Academy Award for best actor for this, and another movie he made at the same time, The Way of All Flesh (that the actual winner was Rin Tin Tin is a whole other matter, proving that right from the beginning the Oscars were going to the dogs).

And yes, Dietrich's rejection of Hitler and her loyalty to her adopted country is admirable. Similarly, Jannings' decision to return to Germany and work for UFA and Josef Goebbels is unfortunate -- and despicable. But that doesn't dismiss the fact that he gives a tremendous performance in The Last Command.

A word about Evelyn Brent - remarkable. This is her second outing with von Sternberg and she is wonderful. They would make one more film together, the lost, The Dragnet (1929), before von Sternberg found his Muse For The Ages, Dietrich. Was he grooming Brent for that role? Unfortunately, most of her silent films are lost and her "talker" career not very interesting. However, I am so intrigued by this woman, my next post will be devoted to her.

With William Powell as Jannings, nemesis-turned-admirer, The Last Command is available on YouTube - catch the Criterion Collection copy if you can.