The Last Command
About The Last Command
In 1928 Hollywood, director Leo Andreyev picks a photo of the aged Sergius Alexander and casts him as an extra. Sergius, whose head twitches, is handed a general's uniform. Ten years earlier he was Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, the Czar's cousin and commander of the armies. He learns that the actors Leo Andreyev and Natalie Dabrova are revolutionists, toys with them, whips Leo, and jails him. He takes Natalie with him and gives her a pearl necklace. She loves him and cannot use the pistol hidden in her room. When Bolsheviks take their train, she pretends to despise him and has him stoke the engine, a way to keep him alive, then helps him jump off at night and gives the necklace back. He sees the train crash into an icy river with Natalie aboard. That is the shock behind the twitch. Poor in Hollywood, he meets Leo again. Leo casts him as a Russian general and tells him to whip a mutinous soldier: "You've given your last command." Sergius believes he is on a real field, urges the men to fight, and dies asking if they won. Someone says, "That guy was a great actor." Leo answers, "He was more than a great actor — he was a great man."
Cast & crew
More about The Last Command
Josef von Sternberg directed. John F. Goodrich wrote the scenario. Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the titles. The story is by Lajos Bíró and Sternberg. Bert Glennon photographed it. Paramount released it on 22 January 1928. Shooting took five weeks. The story draws on Theodore Lodijensky, an Imperial Russian general whom Ernst Lubitsch met in Russia and later in New York, where Lodijensky worked as an extra after the revolution. Emil Jannings plays Sergius. Evelyn Brent plays Natalie. William Powell plays Leo.
Themes
Background
The flashback is the Russian Revolution. The frame is a Hollywood extra call in 1928.
Making
Lodijensky, a real former general working as a Hollywood extra, is the person the plot is drawn from. Lubitsch had met him in Russia and again in New York.
Look
Bert Glennon was the cinematographer.
Preservation
Selected for the United States National Film Registry in 2006.
Notes
- Jannings's Academy Award at the 1929 ceremony was for this performance and for The Way of All Flesh together. That was the only year more than one role was considered.
- The National Film Registry added the film in 2006.
- Fritz Feld, Guy Oliver, and Michael Visaroff are also in the Wikidata cast.
- The Hollywood studio in the story is called Eureka Studio.
Awards
- Academy Award for Best Actor (1929 ceremony), Emil Jannings, for this film and The Way of All Flesh
Scenes
- Sergius whips Leo in Russia and has him jailed.
- He jumps from the train and watches it crash into the ice with Natalie still aboard.
- On the Hollywood battlefield he dies after asking whether they won.
Influenced by
- Theodore Lodijensky's life as an exiled general and extra
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Last Command (1928).webm)
Quotes
You've given your last command.
That guy was a great actor.
He was more than a great actor — he was a great man.
