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A Royal Scandal (1945)
Cast / Credits / Reviews (From the Turner Classic Movies Database)
Ernst Lubitsch was the original director for A Royal Scandal, but illness forced him
to bow out; his replacement was Otto Preminger, who did his utmost to retain the
"Lubitsch touch." Based on a play
by Lajos Biro and Melchior
Lengyal, the film
dwells upon a fictional incident in the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, here played
with blue-blooded bawdiness by Tallulah Bankhead. Catherine falls in love with a handsome
young army officer (William Eythe), who turns out to be an insurrectionist planning her
downfall. At the last moment, Catherine relents, allowing the officer to escape with his
true love, lady-in-waiting Anne Baxter. A bit too cute for its own good, Royal Scandal has
some choice moments: Most notable are Tallulah Bankhead's pained reaction upon being
hailed as "The Mother of All Russias," and supporting actor Grady Sutton's
southern-accented reference to the "U-ral Mountains". -- Hal Erickson
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