Such a frustrating disappointment

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Wow - a chance to see the three Barrymores together.Kind of underwhelming."Rasputin and the Empress" is the amazingly inaccurate story of Rasputin and his influence on the royal family. Lionel is the man himself, John is the man who wants him dead, Prince Chegodieff, and Ethel is the Empress.This film cost MGM a lot of money in lawsuits even though the names were changed to protect the guilty. The Yusupov family made quite a bit of money thanks to their portrayal in this film, as Prince Chegodieff and Natasha.The movie doesn't hold up for reasons beyond its plot. Ethel, who was very good as a character actress in films, here does the sort of acting popular in the day, melodramatic and with a quivering voice. She just may not have been used to film acting, I don't know.Lionel played Rasputin and he was good, except that his Rasputin is apparently a rapist as well as a madman. And John, my favorite, is wasted. He really should have played Rasputin, and this film would have gone up a level or two.At any rate, seeing the three Barrymores together was a big bust. Also, John and Lionel didn't get along at least at that point, and while on the set, Lionel called the director from a pay phone and told him to tell John to stop touching him. John would put his hand on Lionel's arm in a scene, which was a way of drawing the focus to John.One big happy family. Skip it.

What works: the basic story-- about a trusted adviser who is really a menace to the family; the concept of inviting evil into one's home, thinking it is goodness, is a strong one. Also, it is evident MGM poured gobs of money into this film. Cedric Gibbons and his art department have outdone themselves with the production. And the acting is all first-rate.What doesn't work: the story is too drawn out. Too many scenes of the monk (Lionel Barrymore) hypnotizing everyone and everything in sight. Some of it is quite predictable. We knew that the prince (John Barrymore) wouldn't succeed at shooting him in the beginning, because it was too early in the story. And we needed the big fight scene near the end. Plus it was quite unrealistic that the monk doesn't even get a scratch on him when the prince fires a bullet or two into him. I suppose we can question if the monk is supernatural and not of this world, but there could have been a bit more explanation about his apparent invincibility. I almost half-expected Greta Garbo to show up in this somewhere. I was disappointed she did not.

The first family of theatre the Barrymores get together in this historically inaccurate depiction of the Romanovs in free fall and the man that help facilitate the end of an empire, Rasputin. It is the only time the three siblings appear in a film together and all three performances appear to be wanting.The son and heir to Czar Nicholas of Russia is afflicted with a disease (hemophilia) that confounds the royal physicians. Desperate to heal her son she entrusts his care to the enigmatic Rasputin who through hypnosis and terror becomes the boys trusted enabler. With his new found influence Rasputin wastes little time in consolidating his power deceiving the czarina and corrupting officials. The marquee value of John, Lionel and Ethel Barrymore may well put people inside the theater but unfortunately it is their performances that will move them just as fast to the exit. All three are dreadfully miscast and stilted as they reach for larger than life amid the splendor that was the Peacock Dynasty. John is more or less wasted as the Count trying to bring down Rasputin when he should be playing him. A year earlier he gave a tour de force as Svengali and clearly would have brought the charismatic verve that Rasputin needs instead of the cantankerous Lionel who though chilling is more crotchety than messianic. Ethel coated in layers of jewelery and gowns does little more than fret and add tremulous vocals. Outside the family in the crucial role of Czar Nicholas, Ralph Morgan hardly registers. True, Nicholas was an ineffectual leader but Morgan plays him to near invisibility. Cinematographer William Daniels and set director Cedric Gibbons and crew give the film a regal look of pomp and ceremony but the family Barrymore en masse remains lost if luckier than the Romanovs. At least they didn't get shot for their poor performances.

This is a reasonably decent movie, well acted (particularly by Lionel, who practically chews the scenery as Rasputin) and the sets and costumes are fairly nice. But the main selling point is that this is the only time the three Barrymores -Ethel, John and Lionel did a movie together. It's a good movie but could have been much better.