During the 19th century, Empress Sisi of the Austria-Hungarian Empire was the darling of Europe. She was pretty and the newspapers turned her into a sensation. In many ways, the hubbub around her was like that of the late Princess Diana Windsor...with people adoring her though not exactly sure why. In real life, Sisi was a strange, vain lady who couldn't live up to this public image...after all, who could?! Well, because of her huge popularity in her time, it's not at all surprising that she was the subject of quite a few films...such as the lavish Sisi series starring Romy Schneider. Like this series, "The King Steps Out" is pretty much fiction...showing a strong romance with her eventual husband, Emperor Franz Josef...though in real life they could barely stand each other and spent much of their married life apart! So, if you see this film, remember that it is NOT really a biography...just an excuse to see the opera star Grace Moore sing!The story purports to be the love story of Franz Josef and Sisi. Originally, the Emperor was going to marry Sisi's sister, but the sister already had a boyfriend. As for Sisi, she and the Emperor meet and fall in love...not knowing who the other was. All in all, both appear to be swell, down to Earth people. Apart from the names, pretty much all the story is fiction.So is it any good? Well, the history teacher within me says no because the film is a historical nightmare. But, on the positive side, while it's a Grace Moore film, she doesn't sing all that much...a major plus for most viewers since most viewers don't want to hear opera music. Overall, pleasant fluff that bears almost no semblance to Sisi or Franz Josef.

SPOILERS *** Not sure why they called this "King Steps Out"... the leader of this burg seems to be Emporer Franz Josef, played by Franchot Tone. There are dukes, duchesses, princesses, colonels and captains, but no kings. Walter Connolly, known for his comedy is the duke of bavaria. Franchot Tone is the Emporer, and has the guards bring up "Cissy", the girl picking flowers. (Grace Moore) She keeps busting out into song. Yawn. This one would have been better if they jazzed up the script and left out the songs completely. Mistaken identities, silly inn-keepers, interfering parents, and suddenly they're in love. A couple twists, here and there. Its OK. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, who apparently had a reputation as a real jerk, acc to various sources. An interesting tale where Charlie Chaplin burned one of Sternbergs films, since it came out so terrible. Wikipedia has a whole entry on "Woman_of_the_Sea"... sadly, the film seems to be lost to time. When you watch this one, mute the operatic numbers and just enjoy the show.

This one is tough to honestly evaluate. On the one hand you have Grace Moore and her wonderful voice, able and adequate supporting roles, notably by the always reliable and graceful Frieda Inescort, Franchot Tone and Walter Connoly, and of course Sternberg's direction. For me at least that's reason enough to watch any movie, even this one which in some ways is an utter disaster. On the other there's just too much silliness, foolishness and Herman Bing. He can be aggravating enough even in small doses but he does way too much of that trademark tongue rolling and quaking of his for my taste.And then there's the ages of the real Sisi (Moore's character, Elisabeth of Bavaria) and Franz Josef (Tone's character). When Sisi married Franz Josef she was 16 and he 24, not 40 and 30, the ages of Moore and Tone respectively. Even given the generous poetic license the producers took with the real story which is nothing if not tragic, there's only one way to look at this movie. It is nothing more than a vehicle for Grace Moore. And maybe that's reason enough to watch it.

One of the truisms of Hollywood was that Josef Von Sternberg lost his muse when he and Marlene Dietrich parted creative company after The Devil Is A Woman. With Crime and Punishment between them, this next film is considered to be the biggest flop in his career. Mainly because Von Sternberg took on a light and airy Viennese operetta, the kind he probably grew up on in Europe.I don't think the film flopped because it was so bad, it's dated, but other operettas and more well known ones date even more. However The King Steps Out made a mistake because too many people remembered Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary for good and for ill him dying exactly 20 years earlier. And about 20 years earlier his wife Empress Elizabeth also died and she was also remembered by a few.What people remembered that beneath all this Viennese schmaltz, this was a story that did not have a happy ending. What we see in the film concerning Franz Josef and Elizabeth of Bavaria is true as far as it goes. It was a whirlwind courtship of sorts and the young Emperor did wind up marrying the younger sister after the Dowager Empress his mother arranged for the older sister. In real life though after the honeymoon and Elizabeth presenting the Hapsburg Emperor with a son and seemingly settling the succession, the woman would not settle down. When you see the vivacious Elizabeth that Grace Moore gives us on the screen, that was the real Sissi. She would not settle down though and eventually the couple split and lived apart for the rest of their lives with Elizabeth leading a gay and carefree life at the various resorts and spas of 19th century Europe. She was assassinated by an anarchist. The reaction to her death was very much like that for Princess Diana, in fact there are a lot of parallels between Lady Diana Spencer and Elizabeth of Bavaria.The image we have of Franz Joseph is that solemn man with the muttonchop whiskers and a stern countenance, the father of his people. Franz Joseph was always in fact a serious minded man. The character that Franchot Tone gives us just isn't the case, he was hardly that charming in real life. The Emperor certainly did get his battery plenty charged when Sissi was around and they were young and in love.Grace Moore of course is in fine voice in the third of her films for Columbia and the first that didn't quite measure up to Harry Cohn's expectations. The score was written by violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler and Dorothy Fields and two of the songs Stars In My Eyes and The Old Refrain became concert standards for Grace Moore. Harry Cohn gave Von Sternberg a wonderful cast of known supporting players to work with. Out of the group I liked Herman Bing, the only authentic German in the bunch. He gets a lot of laughs out of playing the flustered innkeeper whom everyone, royalty included, takes advantage of.No happily ever after endings for Franz Joseph and Sissi and sad to say the audience knew it.