The Last Command

6/6/2022

Emil Jannings is masterful in this depiction of an elderly gentleman selected by an Hollywood director (William Powell) to play the part of a Russian general in a film. When he arrives on set, his colleagues tease him about a medal he is wearing. He proceeds to tell them it was given to him by Czar Nicholas II himself, and after a bit of playful derision, they return the medal and the "General" finds himself looking into the mirror of his make-up box whence he drifts into a retrospective of his true self - the commanding General Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, cousin to the Czar and the man in charge of Imperial Russian forces in 1917. His portrayal of this proud, effective man who displays some sense of pragmatism about their military situation, coupled with a sense of gentleness to Evelyn