Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

JohnHowardReid Emil Jannings (General Dolgorucki), Evelyn Brent (Natascha Dobrowa), William Powell (Leo Andreiev), Nicholas Soussanin (adjutant), Michael Visaroff (Serge, the valet), Jack Raymond (assistant director), Viacheslav Savitsky (private), Fritz Feld (revolutionist), Harry Semels (soldier), Alexander Ikonnikov, Nicholas Kobyliansky (drill- masters), Shep Houghton (Russian youth).Director: JOSEF VON STERNBERG. Screenplay: John F. Goodrich. Based on an original story by Lajos Biro and Josef von Sternberg (which was in turn based on a suggestion by Ernst Lubitsch). Titles: Herman J. Mankiewicz. Photography: Bert Glennon. Film editor: William Shea. Art director: Hans Dreier. Make-up: Fred C. Ryle. Technical adviser: Nicholas Kobyliansky. Production supervisor: J. G. Bachmann. Associate producer: B. P. Schulberg.Copyright 21 January 1928 by Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. Presented by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. New York opening at the Rialto, 22 January 1928. U.S. release: 21 January 1928. 9 reels. 8,154 feet. 90 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Former Russian general is reduced to working as an extra in Hollywood.NOTES: Academy Award, Best Actor, Emil Jannings (for this picture and The Way of All Flesh). Also nominated for Best Picture (Wings) and Original Story (Underworld).Number 3 in the Film Daily poll of U.S. film critics (after The Patriot and Sorrell and Son).COMMENT: One of the films that confirms Chaplin's observation that just as the Silent Cinema achieved maturity, it was thrown away. Von Sternberg's fluid direction is a joy to watch and his ironic story is concisely told with a minimum of sub-titles. Jannings deserved his Academy Award and is given excellent support, particularly by Brent and Visaroff.

seanpayne A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.This early film by Joseph Von Sternberg is fascinating for several reasons, most of which unfortunately are not to do with its dramatic quality.It's a time-capsule of a very specific point in the twentieth century and speaks with the voice of a whole class who felt a little uneasy at recent events, namely, the long reverberations of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and the political repercussions throughout Europe. It's worth keeping in mind that many of the major figures in the early American film industry were themselves children of mother Russia and many actors and technical crew washed up in Hollywood after making themselves scarce in their home countries currently undergoing revolutionary upheaval. This was so well-known to the public that the film itself could depict a commander of Russian military forces reduced to the status of a movie extra without stretching credulity.The scenes of revolution in Russia are fascinating to watch as a right wing answer to the avant garde depictions of the same events, most famously in Eisenstein's 'October'. Compared to the kinetic rhythm of that film and others like his 'Battleship Potemkin', the scenes of crowd violence in 'The Last Command' are pretty tame and melodramatic. In fact the revolting masses scowl and screech like apes in heat. In several scenes they literally drool with blood-lust. The worst impersonations of what people think of as 'silent movie acting' are confirmed, complete with eye-rolling and tearing of hair.That old joke about 'the masses are revolting' seems to be the guiding principle here. Even the Hollywood extras on the movie studio lot are animals, pushing and shoving, mocking and jeering the sad tragic figure of Emil Jannings, the humiliated former 'imperial highness'. The film itself assumes the moral superiority of he ruling classes at every turn, whether they be Czarist military authorities or studio executives. Even the preening, cynical Jannings in the flashback scenes of pre-revolutionary Russia is affirmed to be at heart a patriot, one who 'loves Russia', in the words of the former revolutionary heroine, whose personality transitions are so abrupt it seems she is suffering from some advanced psychiatric condition.One thing that seems completely contemporary about the film, though. The camera almost caresses Jannings at every opportunity and he is in virtually every scene. It was obviously a calculated star vehicle for him, a vanity project, just as much as any recent Adam Sandler movie. I was not the least surprised that Jannings won the very first acting Oscar for his performance in this film, not because of its quality - he was better in Murnau's 'Last Laugh' to name just one previous role - but because it was in every sense a flagship picture, furnished with all the resources of the major studio that financed it. The very same thing happens today.

CJBx7 THE LAST COMMAND (1928) tells the story of Sergius Alexander (Emil Jannings), a former general in Czarist Russia, who now works as a Hollywood movie extra. He is hired by a Russian expatriate director, Leo Andreyev (William Powell), who knows Alexander from years ago. A flashback reveals that the two were on opposite sides during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the relationship that developed between Alexander and a beautiful actress, Natalie (Evelyn Brent). Directed by Josef von Sternberg.The movie basically sets up it premise within the first 10-15 minutes and then proceeds to an extended flashback which shows the general's life in Czarist Russia. For a while I thought that the film would go back and forth between the two settings, but it does not until the flashback is concluded. I found it a bit lengthy, but it does pay off in the end, and the final sequences of the movie have considerable dramatic power.Emil Jannings gives a haunting, excellent performance as Sergius Alexander. In lesser hands, Alexander would be nothing more than a stereotypical tyrant and hissable villain. However, Jannings was one of the greatest actors of his time, and he imbues his portrayal with nuances that cause of to feel sympathy with the man and make us aware of his love for his country. Jannings is highly expressive throughout, and always compelling to watch. William Powell is also memorable, as he displays firm conviction in some scenes and an eerily calm, menacing quality in others as his character strives to humiliate Alexander. I had some reservations about Evelyn Brent's performance. She's good at giving dour glares, but the initial phase of her performance left me wishing she would find more facial expressions to display. However that changed when she gets the chance to play revolutionary firebrand, and a conflicted woman in love. Her performance at this point went from somewhat adequate to genuinely excellent. She becomes mesmerizing and totally convincing. I was quite impressed with the range she displayed. The cinematography is effective, very solid and well executed. You get a feel for the contrast between the opulence in which General Alexander lived before, and the squalor of his surroundings once he had to eke out a life as a movie extra. The main draw here, though, are the performances from Jannings, Brent and Powell. Overall, the movie does require some patience, but it stands as a superior effort from the end of the silent era. SCORE: 8/10

Michael_Elliott Last Command, The (1928) **** (out of 4) Marvelous drama about a former Russian General (Emil Jannings) who after the war fled the country and ended up in America where ten years later he's working as an extra in Hollywood. A director (William Powell) is making a movie about that Russian war when he comes across a picture of the former General and recognizes him as the man who threw him in prison years earlier. This here certainly turned out to be something truly special and a lot of the credit has to go to director von Sternberg but we also have Jannings turning in a magnificent performance, which ended up winning him an Oscar. The story also won a Oscar and it's easy to see why because the screenplay pretty much contains ever bit of emotion you could possibly want. There's some nice laughs, a pretty good love story, some political drama and some incredibly tense scenes. What shocked me so much is that it seems like von Sternberg wanted the first twenty-minutes or so to gain sympathy for our main character as we see him obviously destroyed by life and working for peanuts as an extra. When then get the grand flashback to when he was pretty much the ruler of Russia and how his encounter with a woman (Evelyn Brent) pretty much changes the rest of his life. The story is part tragedy but it also works incredibly well as a character study because one can't help but love this guy and feel sorry for the pain he goes through. The "Rosebud" from CITIZEN KANE is perhaps the greatest secret in film history but I think Jannings' nervous head shake has to be the second one. Early on we're told that this head shake is due to some accident and when it's finally revealed what that accident was it comes as a great shock and is an incredibly powerful sequence. The final thirty-minutes of the movie is like an out of control train, which is funny because the majority of the footage takes place on-board a train. As the revolution begins the film starts to pick up energy and drama and it just keeps growing and growing as the thing moves along. It's clear von Sternberg planned it this way because he just keeps pounding the viewer with one twist after another and the suspense just keeps building until that final secret is revealed. The aftermath as the story picks back up in Hollywood is yet another powerful turn and will certainly leave an impact on the viewers. Jannings is marvelous in the main role as he really is playing two characters and he does a terrific job with both of them. I was very moved by his performance as the broken down extra because he tells us everything we need to know the first time we see his face. The eyes can be a very powerful thing for an actor and Jannings tells us so much with the look on his face. The power and emotion in his eyes isn't something they can teach at an acting school and the veteran certainly knows how to use his. Powell's role isn't nearly as flashy but he too is quite good. Brent is even more impressive here than she was in the director's previous film UNDERWORLD. Her character goes through a lot of changes as well and I thought the actress nailed each one of the emotions and manages to have us want to see her dead one second only to then change our opinions on her a split second later. THE LAST COMMAND is certainly one of the most powerful movies from this era with a final thirty-minutes that rank among the best I've ever seen.