The Last Command (1928)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Last Command (1928) – J. von Sternberg

Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of a Russian general who lost his position during the Revolution and wound up as an extra in Hollywood. As directed by (pre-Dietrich) Josef von Sternberg, it’s structured as a first introduction to the character (and the Hollywood studio assembly line) and then a long meaty flashback in Russia, and finally a coda that returns us to Hollywood where the actor is given a final scene in a movie about Russian troops in WWI (still led by the Czar) and a final chance to recapture his dignity. Ironically, the director of the film (played by a young William Powell, who seems wrong without his voice in the Silent era) was one of the revolutionaries harassed by the General in the old days (alongside Evelyn Brent who became the General’s love interest despite her revolutionary goals) – even those in favour of regime change could see the General’s love for his country and its people.  As staged by von Sternberg, the Russian scenes are full of extras and action but somehow the film never quite scales the heights of other masterworks of the era (I prefer Jannings in Murnau’s The Last Laugh, 1924). Von Sternberg would have his heyday in the 1930s with Marlene.