Sadly Over-hyped

Don't Believe the Hype

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Dressed up as "Romeo" for a masquerade ball in Vienna, Russian royal Robert Young (as Peter) meets pretty costumed "Juliet" Maureen O'Sullivan (as Maria). They seems like a perfect match, but it's really a plot to abduct Mr. Young. His imperial highness is to be exchanged for her revolutionary father. Young has written a letter to his father, asking him to halt the execution of Ms. Sullivan's father. The letter eventually becomes hidden in "The Emperor's Candlesticks". Chasing them around are a couple of spies, Polish secret agent William Powell (as Stephan Wolensky) and Russian counter-agent Luise Rainer (as Olga Mironova). Of course, the spies become mutually attracted...That may or may not be a good description of the plot; it's simple, but confusingly presented. Director George Fitzmaurice and his editor do not assist in making it understandably smooth. In an interesting scene, we cut from Mr. Powell looking at a train station poster to what looks like a clip from the end of "Anna Karenina" (1935). This is perversely appropriate as Ms. Rainer often appears to be doing impersonations of that film's star, Greta Garbo. By the mid-1930s, Garbo's films were making 2-3 times more money than previously; that's great, but she was averaging only one every two years. MGM needed another glamorously accented worldwide star. Enter Luise Rainer..."The Emperor's Candlesticks" was the first film to feature Ms. Rainer as a big star. While second-billed, she clearly commands the camera's focus; this film was produced for her. It's also the first Rainer made after back-to-back "Best Actress" Academy Award-winning performances in "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and "The Good Earth" (1937). The star of Rainer's first two US films, Powell appears more puzzled than passionate in his scenes with Rainer; remember, he's supposed to be falling in love with her. More perturbed than puzzled MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who orchestrated Rainer's Oscar-saturated introduction, received notice that his Garbo gamble might not pay off.**** The Emperor's Candlesticks (7/2/37) George Fitzmaurice ~ Luise Rainer, William Powell, Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan

No wonder Luise Rainer's career went south following this film and several others. Following her Oscar wins, Ms. Rainer was rushed into some poor films and the results showed quickly.In this film, she sounds like she has congestion, but people would say that this was because of her accent.A tale of Polish and Russian spies, the entire concept needed reworking. The writing is weak, the performances by Rainer and Powell just aren't there because they're given such poor material to work with.As the Countess Mironova, Rainer acts and looks like a refugee living in Brooklyn. She appears as one of the foreigners you would meet at a marketplace.The plot is a good one. Polish nationalists kidnap a Russian emperor's son in the hopes that a Polish nationalist will be freed. Instead of concentrating on this, the film devotes itself to how 2 spies, Rainer and Powell, try to outwit each other by getting the candlesticks which reveal important information inside.Frank Morgan provides some comic relief to Robert Young, the victim of the kidnapping. Yet, his part is mainly understated as is the problem with the entire film.

The handsome Prince (Robert Young) has been kidnapped and will be killed unless a Polish secret agent (William Powell) is able to sneak a ransom note to the Czar. Unfortunately, he chose a rather silly place to hide the note (inside a specially created candlestick) and it is lost. At the same time, a Russian spy (Luise Rainer) is trying to sneak in letters incriminating Powell as a spy--and also hides them inside the matching candlestick--which also is lost. Lots of intrigue follows--as well as some MGM style romance.This film should have been better. After all, it starred the wonderful William Powell and had such supporting stars as Maureen O'Sullivan, Robert Young, Frank Morgan and Henry Stephenson--all fine actors. However, despite a decent script idea and such talent, the film was only okay. Much of this is because the script was rather tepid and talky--with too many scenes listening to the characters play verbal chess--trying to outfox each other. There was little 'zip' or excitement.In addition, some of the blame probably resides with co-star Luise Rainer. While Ms. Rainer only made a small number of Hollywood films, she had the distinction of winning two straight Best Actress Oscars. However, when you see these two performances as well as her subsequent films you wonder why she received such accolades. The performances just didn't age well. In the last week or so I have seen six of her more famous films, I can't help but think that she was a terribly over-rated star. I'm sure she's a nice person and is still thriving today at 98 years-old. But her style of acting usually included staring wide-eyed into space and often reciting her lines in an over-eager fashion--more like a girl in a high school play than someone trying to play a realistic performance. While Ms. Rainer was better in THE EMPEROR'S CANDLESTICKS than in some of her other films (particularly DRAMATIC SCHOOL and BIG CITY), she still was not up to starring against Powell.Now all this is NOT to say that this is a bad film--it's enjoyable enough. But there just isn't much spark or energy and could have been a lot more interesting. A decent time-passer and that's about it.

I've seen The Emperor's Candlesticks twice now and I'm still trying to figure it out. Why are the Russian secret police so intent on getting their Grand Duke killed is beyond me?Polish patriots kidnap a Romanov Grand Duke while he's on a holiday in Vienna. The Grand Duke is played by Robert Young and he's with Frank Morgan as his protector. That alone should tell you Romanov security stinks big time. Young's seduced and led to his kidnappers by the lovely Maureen O'Sullivan. She's got a good reason for doing it, her father's in a Czarist prison awaiting a death sentence. The idea is to swap Young for dad. But for some reason I absolutely can't fathom, the Poles are afraid their note explaining their demands to the Czar won't reach him.The Poles get William Powell to deliver the message and the Russians have their own agent Luise Rainer. The note is to be delivered in one of a pair of Louis XV candlesticks and Powell and Rainer run all over Europe, Vienna, Paris, London and finally St. Petersburg. Naturally of course the opposing spies are falling for each other.The same plot gambit was used by MGM in Operator 13 with Gary Cooper and Marion Davies in the American Civil War and also in The Firefly with Allan Jones and Jeanette MacDonald. Those were pretty good films, but MGM came up short with this one. The Emperor's Candlesticks wastes a pretty good cast in a very trite and incoherent story that Powell and Rainer can't save no matter how much they turn on the charm.