Friday, July 11 • Sundown (around 8:30) Pickering Square • 100 Broad St • Downtown Bangor IN CASE OF RAIN—Bangor Opera House 131 Main Street, Bangor • Home of the Penobscot Theatre FREE admission! All concessions—$1

Click here to: Recommended Reading Dressing the Part : Sternberg, Dietrich, and Costume / Sybil DelGaudio The Idea of the Image : Josef von Sternberg's Dietrich Films / Carole Zucker Marlene : the Life of Marlene Dietrich / by Charles Higham Blue angel : the Life of Marlene Dietrich / Donald Spoto Marlene Dietrich : Life and Legend / Steven Bach Thinking in Images : Film Theory, Feminist Philosophy and Marlene Dietrich / Catherine Constable. Selections available through the Bangor Public Library

The Scarlet Empress

1934 • Directed by Josef von Sternberg
With Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser, Maria Sieber, C. Aubrey Smith
Not Rated • 110 mins

Of the two 1934 film versions of the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, Josef von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress was the most opulent and exotic. Marlene Dietrich plays the German-born Catherine, who is required to marry Russia's mad Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe, decked out in a Harpo Marx wig). As if her joke of a marriage isn't torment enough, Catherine must endure the excesses of her new mother-in-law, Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser). Eventually, Catherine finds solace -- and romance -- in the form of Count Alexei (John Lodge). But even this balm is denied her when the ambitious Alexei begins wooing the much-older Elizabeth. When the old Empress dies, Catherine ascends to the Russian throne, knowing full well that her addled husband would kill her at the slightest provocation. Soon her power outstrips Peter's, and the opportunistic Alexei now comes back into her life. The finale finds Catherine emerging triumphant over all her enemies -- and, in the film's least subtle sequence (which is saying a lot!), the new Empress is shown astride a horse, to whom she displays far more affection than any of her human compatriots. Watch for Dietrich's real-life daughter Maria Sieber (aka Maria Riva) as the 7-year-old Catherine in the early scenes.

—Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Used with permission

Friday, July 11 • Sundown (around 8:30)
Pickering Square • 100 Broad St • Downtown Bangor

IN CASE OF RAIN—Bangor Opera House • 131 Main Street, Bangor • Home of the Penobscot Theatre