A ROYAL SCANDAL (1945)

To get through this, I had to imagine it as a remake of THE SCARLET EMPRESS done as a TV sitcom. Tallulah Bankhead plays Russian ruler Catherine the Great like a bored but horny CEO. Just as she has dismissed the current Commander of the Palace Guards due to a lover's spat, young and hunky William Eythe arrives, after riding three days, to warn her of a rumored coup. Bankhead is impressed and keeps him around, raising his rank every day or so until he is the new Commander. However, the Empress doesn't know that Eythe is engaged to Anne Baxter, a lady-in-waiting at the court; when Bankhead finds out, all hell breaks loose. Charles Coburn is Bankhead's faithful Chancellor; Vincent Price has a small role at the beginning and end as a French diplomat; Grady Sutton has a funny bit as a "hillboy" from the Urals. Also with Mischa Auer, Sig Ruman, and Eva Gabor (though I didn't notice her). Eythe is nicely packed into his uniform and Bankhead takes notice. Generally, the direction is lackluster and the humor bland, and all concerned seem a little embarrassed, but Price has a funny line about sneaking around in secret passages: "You meet the best people coming out of bookshelves." [FMC]