The Mad Empress

CinemaSerf7/10

Jun 22, 2022

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Comparisons are bound to be made between this and "Juarez" being made, simultaneously, across Los Angeles - both focussing on the ill-fated Maxililian and Carlotta - the first, last and only Emperor and Empress of Mexico. Installed by Emperor Napoleon III (Guy Post) the couple reluctantly arrive in their new Empire assured of the support of the local population, and of the military of the French. It doesn't take them very long to realise that both promises are somewhat hollow - especially after their chief military advisor "Bazaine" (Lionel Atwill) manages to get Maxilmilian (Conrad Nagel) to sign a pretty Draconian degree which only serves to galvanise the independent spirit of his people. Carlotta (Medea de Novaro) hardly features at all in this rather mis-titled drama - she heads home to plead their hopeless cause with Napoleon, only for her insistence to fall on deaf ears and for her to remain, without her husband, slowly going out of her mind with grief and loneliness. It pays more than a passing nod to the history - the restoration of the Republic under Juarez (Jason Robards Snr.) and of the grizzly fate that awaited the erstwhile monarch - and the performance from Nagel injects some of the pride and integrity of a man used as a pawn as surely as if he were nought but a foot soldier (in a more fancy uniform) in his cousin's guard. The narrative is a bit too chronological, and the performances and writing are efficient, but it's still well made and good looking with the glamorous de Novara (and her very thick accent) enjoyable to watch too.