nycritic Review of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette (1938)

The MGM Queen Plays France's Fallen Queen

[8/10 · 18 February 2006]

At the time, only MGM could bring forth this overproduced, lavish drama detailing the rise and fall of Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI of France. Their preference for elaborate sets and ornate costumes made this story a natural for the studio to give it all their best and bring that dazzling, rococo period to life. The casting of Norma Shearer in the title role -- one of the perks of being married to Irving Thalberg who had had this movie in production for more than a year before its release in 1938 and was in many ways the person above Louie B. Mayer -- is a bit of an irony since she at the time was considered the Queen of MGM, now its Widow, at the height and end of her acting career. Never allowing her Adrian costumes to out-wear her, her rendition of Marie-Antoinette is moving, convincing as a girl about to be married, who evolves into a woman aware of her position as Queen of France but is a little out-of-touch, and who later becomes one of the many victims who lost their heads under the guillotine's deadly blade. One of her finer performances, she was Oscar nominated but lost to Bette Davis who won for JEZEBEL. Robert Morley, a character actor who made his film debut in MARIE ANTOINETTE and went on to appear in many films until the 80s, is also dead-on as the awkward Louis XVI and was also nominated for his supporting role but lost to Walter Brennan for KENTUCKY.