The enormous star of the '30s, Norma Shearer, was all but forgotten until Turner Classic Movies began showing her films. Due to the renewed interest in Shearer, Loew's, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) has released 1938's Marie Antoinette.
Planned by Shearer's husband, the brilliant producer Irving Thalberg, the actress proceeded with the sumptuous production after his death in 1936. It would be one of her last films before her retirement at the age of 39.
Based on Stefan Zweig's heavily researched book on the Queen of France, the character of Marie emerges as a woman out of touch with the real world who was interested in clothes and makeup. As Louis, her husband, suffered from a medical problem at the beginning of their marriage that rendered sex an impossibility, she sought sexual release in the arms of Swedish Count Axel von Fersen (Tyrone Power).
Once Louis had surgery, the couple had two children, and Marie became devoted to him. However, the "Affair of the Necklace" contributed to Marie's downfall, King and Queen were too detached from their country to see what was happening with the poor in France. They paid the price with the guillotine.
No expense was spared in the production. The ballroom of Versailles was recreated, but doubled in size; designer Adrian created 34 of the most spectacular gowns ever seen on film, purchasing silks and brocades from France and gold and silver lace from Austria. A milliner once employed by the Russian Imperial Opera was employed to supervise the manufacture of the headgear.
Due to the whopping, expanding $1.8 million budget, the idea of filming in color had to be abandoned, though sets and costumes were built for a color production. Still, Marie Antoinette is glorious in black and white.
Instead of using MGM contract player Robert Taylor in the part of Axel, Marie's lover, Shearer demanded 20th Century Fox heartthrob, Tyrone Power, to be loaned to the studio. She immediately developed a crush on him. She wasn't alone. When writer Barbara Cartland was asked how she could write such romantic and passionate novels before she was married and still a virgin, she replied, "We didn't need sex. We had Tyrone Power."
Article comments
1 - David Christian Hamblin
It was a thrill for me to see this review from one of America's most interesting Hollywood writers! Kudos to Ciaccia! Thanks for reminding us of this fabulous film. David Christian Hamblin