The Royal Family of Broadway - John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and Lionel Barrymore - come together at MGM, for their one and only feature film together. Having them play out the epoch final years of the Russian Royal Family (The House of Romanov) seems an appropriately lofty assignment. Add to this the fact that writer Charles MacArthur received an "Academy Award" nomination for his screenplay, and you'd think "Rasputin and the Empress" must be somewhere between average and excellent. But, it really ventures between average and dreadful. It's hardly worth watching for the hysterics, and certainly isn't for the history.Taking moustache-twirling to a new low, Lionel takes advantage of brother John's dissipated state and sister Ethel being new to sound films, to steal the picture. But, in whatever state, no Barrymore gives up easily - the overwrought threesome play against each other, and slavishly to the back row of newspaper and magazine critics. Two of the more natural performances are given by the fly and the ant Lionel shows young Tad Alexander, under a microscope. There should be some entertainment value in watching all of this, but there just isn't - poorly paced at over two hours, it becomes tiresome. William Daniels photographs the sets nicely.**** Rasputin and the Empress (12/23/32) Richard Boleslawski ~ Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Diana Wynyard

Rasputin and the Empress (1932) *** (out of 4) Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore star in this film, which was the only one that all three legends appeared in together. After her son is near death, Czarina Alexandria (Ethel) lets the monk Rasputin (Lionel) pray with her son who eventually heals and the monk gives credit to God. Saving her son, the monk soon finds himself gaining power inside the government but this doesn't sit well with Prince Chegodieff (John) who will stop at nothing to prove the monk is mad. Apparently MGM was sued due to how inaccurate the story is here so if you want a history lesson you should go read a book but if you want to see all three Barrymore's together then this is the only film out there that will suit you. The film should have been a lot better than it is but the thing drags at several points and I'm sure fifteen or so minutes could have been trimmed from the 123-minute running time, although apparently the film ran longer when originally released. The performances aren't what you'd expect but it's certainly fun seeing the three Barrymore's working together. Lionel actually goes way over the top, which is something you'd expect from John but he actually manages to be quite calm and cool throughout the film. John certainly gives the best performance but it's Lionel who steals the film with his fake beard and over the top antics. Ethel is good in her role as is the supporting work from Ralph Morgan. The costumes and set design are wonderful and I really enjoyed the made up ending, which contains some pretty strong violence.

This could have been a true classic. However, it strays far from actual events and abridges the period between the outbreak of the Great War and the killing of the royal family.The three Barrymores -- Lionel, Ethel and John -- are fine as Rasputin, the Empress and Prince Paul, a fictional character who assassinates Rasputin (the real assassin was Prince Feliks Yusupov, who was distressed by the damage that Rasputin was doing to the public image of the royal family).The film correctly shows how Rasputin was interfering with the government and the execution of the Great War. But we don't actually see any sign of the February and October revolutions and the abdication of the czar. In the movie, the royal family is taken by train to a house where they are shot by the Bolsheviks. All of these events happen so suddenly in the film that a casual viewer would lose sense of the chronology.Moreover, the direction is poor and many scenes last too long, making the movie drag.

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.