LIBEL IN PICTURE FILM

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1934, Page 7

LIBEL IN PICTURE FILM

£25,000 DAMAGES AWARDED RUSSIAN PRINCESS’ CLAIM RECOGNISED, AS CHARACTER CZAR HOUSEHOLD TRAGEDY By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Rec. 5.5 p.m. London, March 5. The jury awarded Princess Irina Yousoupoff £25,000 damages in the. case in which she claimed £40,000 from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Film Corporation, alleging that the character of Princess Matasha in the picture “Rasputin and the Empress” was so thinly veiled that people throughout the world recognised the character as herself. The Court was electrified when Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson, the British naval M.P., declared that an acquaintance named Purishkevitch had actually invited him to murder Rasputin, with whom he was also acquainted. Lieutenant-Colonel Thornhill, British attache in Russia, said he believed that Princess Natasha (played by Diana Wynyard) and Prince Chegodieff (played by John Barrymore) were fictional characters.

Commander Locker-Lampson, recalled, said he took a force of armoured cars to Russia in war-time. He was besieged at a hotel in Petrograd during the 1917 revolution and met the Czar. He engaged in a plot to save the Czar. He said he knew that Prince Yousoupoff, plaintiff’s husband, thought the film ennobling and not degrading. Wright, English chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, said the film was cut when Princess Irina complained, and everything possible was done to satisfy her.

Other witnesses said .they did not associate Princess Natasha with Princess Irina.

Princess Irina subsequently telephoned her mother, Princess Zenia, at Windsor from her solicitor’s office announcing the result and expressing delight with it. Prince Youssoupoff states that he has refused offers to participate in a film to re-enact the killing of Rasputin. The couple after telephoning other friends repeatedly posed for flashlight photographs. Legal costs embracing both sides are estimated to exceed £15,000. Sir William Jowitt’s brief is supposedly £2500 and the daily refresher £250, with junior counsel at £lOOO and refreshers and two juniors at £750 each with refreshers. Sir Patrick Hastings fee is of four figures with refreshers.