Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

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

The intrigues of Imperial Russia provided a fertile source of melodrama for filmmakers during the 1920s, and at first glance this lavish French production would seem to present a familiar variation of a foolproof romantic formula. The far-fetched but enjoyable story introduces a handsome young General who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy girl being groomed in secret to assume the throne in place of a look-alike princess, who meanwhile refuses to abandon the holy anonymity of her convent hideaway...and so forth and so on. Sadly, the film itself has dated pretty severely after all these years, and the awkward 'sonorization' (the synchronized music and sound track added during the mad, post-'Jazz Singer' rush into talkie technology) only makes it appear even more stiff and static when seen today. Of academic interest only.