CATHERINE THE GREAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21764, 2 April 1934, Page 11

CATHERINE THE GREAT

NEW FILM TRIUMPH Alexander Korda has performed a notable feat in motion-picture history by producing such an excellent film as "Catherine the Great" so soon after his world-acclaimed "The Private Life of Henry V11L" A private screening of the picture at the Regent Theatre at the week-end was a holiday treat to a necessarily privileged few, who left the theatre impressed both by Korda's rich scenes and by the performances of all in the cast. Searchers after lapses in historical fact, of course, will make their comments. Korda lias taken liberties both as regards characters and events, but he has made a picture that, if anything, runs smoother than "Henry VIII." and is more absorbing. -Elisabeth Bergner is Catherine. She is not the hard, brilliant, dominating sensualist, but a young bride, whose flower-like innocence withstands the shocks of a rakish court. One sees the gradual emergence of a forceful character which becomes stronger and more appealing until the picture portrays her usurpation of the throne of Russia. Altogether, the film is as much a triumph for Miss Bergner as for Alexander Korda. Douglas Fairbanks, junior, is Prince Paul, sometimes called Russia's Hamlet. He is physically a much more engaging personality than the Paul of history: it would be hard to ask anybody to be quite so unprepossessing. But as the cruel, moody, suspicious, vain, and at the end, three-parts mad Tsar, Mr Fairbanks gives a distinguished piece of acting which few actors could have bettered. Of the host of others who do also very well, there are Flora Robson as the Empress Elizabeth. Sir Gerald du Maurier as the suave valet Lecoq, Irene Vanbrugh with the small part of Catherine's mother, and Diana Napier vividly provocative as one of Paul's mistresses. The film is being released in New Zealand by United Artists.