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TCM Spotlight: Royal Treatments: ‘European Royalty (Sweden, Russia, France)’
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
After two weeks in the British Isles, Turner Classic Movies heads to the European continent for this evening’s lineup of films about real and fictional royalty. Leading things off is 1933’s Queen Christina (pictured), a biopic about the life of the titular 17th-century Swedish ruler, portrayed by Greta Garbo. Imperial Russia in the late 18th century is the setting for the next film, The
Scarlet Empress (1934), which stars Marlene Dietrich as Catherine II (aka Catherine the Great), the last Empress of Russia, who came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III (Sam Jaffe). Staying in Russia but moving to the early 20th century, the next historical drama, 1971’s Best Picture Oscar-nominated Nicholas and Alexandra, offers an account of the last ruling monarch of that country, Tsar Nicholas II (Michael Jayston), and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra (Best Actress Oscar nominee Janet Suzman). After that is The Three Musketeers, a 1948 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure novel, with its fictional story set amid a historical backdrop that includes notable 17th-century French figures like Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury) and King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan). Tonight’s final film stays in France, with a drama set in the years leading up to the revolution that began in 1789: Marie Antoinette (1938), with Best Actress Oscar nominee Norma Shearer as the titular queen consort, and Best Supporting Actor nominee Robert Morley as her husband,
King Louis XVI.