The Emperor's Candlesticks (film)
| The Emperor's Candlesticks | |
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Theatrical Film Poster
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| Directed by | Geo. Fitzmaurice |
| Produced by | John W. Considine, Jr. |
| Screenplay by |
Monckton Hoffe and Harold Goldman |
| Based on |
The Emperor's Candlesticks by Baroness Orczy |
| Starring |
William Powell Luise Rainer |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Cinematography |
Harold Rosson Oliver T. Marsh (uncredited) |
| Edited by | Conrad A. Nervig |
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Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $620,000 |
| Box office | $1,333,000 |
The Emperor's Candlesticks is a 1937 film starring William Powell and Luise Rainer, based on the novel of the same name by Baroness Orczy. It was directed by George Fitzmaurice. The film is a story about spies from opposing sides who fall in love in pre-revolutionary Russia.
While visiting Vienna incognito, Russian Grand Duke Peter (Robert Young) is lured away from a masquerade ball by the beautiful Maria (Maureen O'Sullivan), only to find himself the prisoner of Polish nationalists. Peter is made to write a letter to his father, the Czar of Russia, offering to exchange him for Maria's father, who has been sentenced to be executed.
Because their previous petitions for clemency were intercepted and never reached the Czar, the Poles task secret agent Baron Stephan Wolensky (William Powell) to deliver the letter. Meanwhile, Colonel Pavloff (Frank Reicher), head of the Russian secret police, assigns his own agent, Countess Olga Mironova (Luise Rainer), to take to Russia documents incriminating Wolensky as an enemy agent, along with an order for his arrest.
Since he is already going to Saint Petersburg, Wolensky's friend, Prince Johann (Henry Stephenson), asks him to deliver a pair of ornate candlesticks to a princess. Each of the candlesticks has a secret compartment, so the baron secretly places the letter in one. Later, when Prince Johann amuses Countess Mironova by showing her the candlesticks' unusual feature, she puts her documents inside the other, and persuades the prince to entrust the pair to her. When Wolensky is given the news, he sets off in pursuit.
A complication arises when Mironova's maid, Mitzi Reisenbach (Bernadene Hayes), and Mitzi's lover Anton (Donald Kirke) steal her jewelry and the candlesticks. As they trace the candlesticks, first to Paris and then to London, Wolensky and Mironova admit to each other that they are on opposite sides, but this does not prevent them from falling in love.
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Wikipedia