We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
14
SCREENLAND
Grand Duchess Marie
Royal Dynamite! Direct Descendant of Catherine the Great of Russia Reveals the Real Truth about Historical Romance on the Screen!
EDITOR'S NOTE: When the Grand Duchess Marie saw the motion picture, "Catherine the Great," she decided she must write about it — and SCREENLAND was the magazine fortunate enough to be selected to publish her exclusive article. Perhaps only Screenland would be courageous enough to print the Grand Duchess' article exactly as she has written it! It must be pointed out that her expres sion of opinion in no way reflects the editorial opinion of Sreenlani as to the entertainment value of the film, "Catherine the Great," star img Elizabeth Bergner. As a matter of fact, the film was most favorably reviewed in this magazine. But in the interests of truth, we are proud to present to the American public this frank and fearless review by Grand Duchess Marie — who is, like every screen spectator, entitled 10 her honest opinion, and is also particularly Qualified, as a member of the last Imperial Russian royal family, to judge the merits of a picture based on one of her country's outstanding personages. And now let us know what you think! We want your honest opinion!
DISTORTION of historical facts, misinterpretation of historical characters and historically incorrect settings were for a long time a special privilege of Hollywood and a privilege of which Hollywood availed itself freely and with no scruples. Hollywood was sure that history
Right, another portrait of Catherine the Great as we may assume she really looked, in uniform.
Acme
What a different Catherine created by Elizabeth Bergner, the great European star! Above, a scene from Bergner's screenplay , "Catherine the Great."
Portrait of the Empress Catherine by Johann Baptist Lampi the elder. The colorful life of Catherine the Great has inspired two current film romances. Read what Grand Duchess Marie says about the cinema conception of the Empress.
such as it had been lived and recorded would not hold the public's interest, and history had to be rewritten according to Hollywood ideas.
But in the last years this situation has undergone a decided change for the better. The studios possess at present their own reference libraries and their own staffs of technical advisers whose business it is to make the details of a historical production as correct as possible. And now Hollywood is turning out historical pictures the plots of which, although doctored up, are plausible; and the ensemble of which is studied.
The Czinner version of the story of Empress Catherine of Russia reminds one of the good old Hollywood days when from the sheer ignorance of those in authority a historical production on the screen degenerated into a farce.
Yet the story of Empress Catherine such as it was lived by her in reality is worthy of a better treatment. It contains possibilities of drama and romance which have not been touched upon by the director. Catherine was one of the boldest, one of the most interesting figures amongst the rulers of the eighteenth century; and it