The Last Command

One of the few films to actually take me by surprise. I knew that Criterion had put this out and I knew people held it in high regard but that was about it. Recently I've been trying to watch as many films by one of my all-time favorite actors, William Powell, and came across this movie which I didn't connect to the "Last Command" Criterion release. William Powell isn't in it much but he really shines any time he's on-screen. Evelyn Brent & Emil Jannings were marvelous and really held my attention. The pacing is fast and at times even frantic, the version I saw has music that really fits the tone of the movie, I'll have to pick up the Blu_Ray release to see if it's the same. Some people have said that this was over the top, farcical and melodramatic and maybe it is but I enjoyed the hell out of it and now I'll check out more from Josef von Sternberg.