The dauphine-turned-queen of France is not a self-centered spendthrift aristocrat in this MGM retelling -- no, we can't have an unlikable Norma Shearer -- but a Woman of the People who was misunderstood and framed, and whose goodwill and largess extended even to the starving rabble who sent her to the guillotine. Lord knows it looks like a zillion dollars, with sumptuous Adrian gowns (the best of his career, he felt) in every corner of the frame and D.W. Griffith-sized sets, and with some good supporting vignettes by the likes of John Barrymore and Gladys George. Ty Power at his handsomest effectively underplays amid all the tumult and beheadings, and a young Robert Morley is an affecting Louis XVI. As for Norma, she's diligent, varied, and even touching in the closing third, but fatally movie-starrish; you know she'd rather go to the guillotine than ever look ridiculous or lose audience sympathy. It's a capable movie star performance in a Hollywood spectacle that has more integrity than most of its era. But she plays everything on the top, and her subtext always seems to be, "Where's my key light?"
Review of Marie Antoinette
