Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  Shearer stands out in this average historical movie.

• Jennifer D

  
  So I LOVE the Coppola film and had to see it for comparison. I think some of the historical parts were romanticized and especially since the '35 Hays Act. Anyway, GLORIOUS costumes, fantastic acting by Shearer and in many ways a more heart-wrenching tale than the modern one.… More
  So I LOVE the Coppola film and had to see it for comparison. I think some of the historical parts were romanticized and especially since the '35 Hays Act. Anyway, GLORIOUS costumes, fantastic acting by Shearer and in many ways a more heart-wrenching tale than the modern one. Still, I really loved it. One of those films I really wish had been in color... it would have been spectacular...

• jay n

  
  This really should have been in color. The sets, wigs and costumes are almost impossibly lavish and are dazzling even in B&W. It an enjoyable if questionably accurate historical account of Marie's rise and fall. Norma does well in the lead her occasional lapses into… More
  This really should have been in color. The sets, wigs and costumes are almost impossibly lavish and are dazzling even in B&W. It an enjoyable if questionably accurate historical account of Marie's rise and fall. Norma does well in the lead her occasional lapses into grandiosity are well suited to a queen and don't get in the way of her characterization like they often did in several of her other films and her smaller moments are well played.

• William D

  
  Finally, a film from 1938 worth championing! I've seen about 10 films as part of my study of 1938 Oscar-nominated movies, and "Marie Antoinette," starring Norma Shearer, is by far the best of the lot. The ironic thing is that it didn't even receive a nomination as… More
  Finally, a film from 1938 worth championing! I've seen about 10 films as part of my study of 1938 Oscar-nominated movies, and "Marie Antoinette," starring Norma Shearer, is by far the best of the lot. The ironic thing is that it didn't even receive a nomination as Best Picture! Even more galling, it lost in all the categories for which it was nominated, including Best Actress (Shearer as the doomed queen), Supporting Actor (Robert Morley in his screen debut), and Best Score. W.S. Van Dyke, who had been nominated for Best Director in 1935 and 1937 (for "The Thin Man" and "San Francisco," respectively) was not nominated for "Marie Antoinette." It is a travesty that this film got such short shrift at the Oscars in 1938, a year when there was barely any competition. This was a gigantic MGM production, with a hundred extras and breathtaking costumes and sets. Like "Gone With the Wind," which MGM released the following year, the film has an intermission built right into the movie, breaking up its nearly three-hour running time. It also opens with a full overture while the screen is blank. MGM pulled out all the stops for this production, and the studio delivered in every way. The story is not quite as rich or fascinating as "Gone With the Wind," but it is engrossing, moving, and serious. The film opens in Vienna, with a young Antoinette being told that she will be married to the prince of France, a man whom she has never met. Shearer plays the character as deeply kind and effervescent, so she is instantly likable. Once in Paris, she has a terrible time establishing a bond with the semi-retarded Louis, but she tries very hard. When he shuts her out of his life, the princess immerses in party life and conspicuous luxury, mostly out of boredom and loneliness. When the prince becomes king, their relationship changes dramatically. But a love interest develops with another man nonetheless. He is played by the wooden but devastatingly beautiful Tyrone Power. Despite not having real acting skill, Power commands the screen in all the films I've seen him in. His eyes transfix you like a hypnotist's. Act II focuses exclusively on the Revolution, with one nail-biting sequence after another. The last 15 minutes are excruciating because of all the violence. After having spent 90 minutes getting to know the tender and gentle Louis and Antoinette, it is brutal watching them and their children become the victims of terrible violence. It was impressive for a big studio production to have the guts to end on a darkly realistic note. Perhaps that is the reason the film was so ill treated by the Academy. With war brewing in Europe in 1938, perhaps it was hard to rally around a film that took on a heavy topic and had a downbeat and frightening ending. Put "Marie Antoinette" on your list of 1930s films that deserve to be rediscovered. And kudos to MGM and W.S. Van Dyke for sticking to their guns and delivering a tough, intelligent picture.

• Mason W

  
  The film; Marie Antoinette, is one of the most lavish film's I have seen. This gem from MGM Studios in 1938 stars the beautiful Norma Sheaer along with the dashing Tyrone Power. Norma Shearer plays the Queen Marie Antoinette whom fals in love with Tyrone Power wher they stay… More
  The film; Marie Antoinette, is one of the most lavish film's I have seen. This gem from MGM Studios in 1938 stars the beautiful Norma Sheaer along with the dashing Tyrone Power. Norma Shearer plays the Queen Marie Antoinette whom fals in love with Tyrone Power wher they stay together through her ill fated marriage and the over throw of France. The recent version with Kirsten Dunst holds nothing close to this materpiece of the original. Make time to see this and forget the remake which is not worthy of a few moments.

• Michael G

  
  The Coppola version beats the crap out of this one and it's drawn out heavy handedness. In the plus column, Van Dyke's version does try to portray Marie in a more sympathetic light as a victim rather than a selfish bitch. It also offers more in the way of a biography rather… More
  The Coppola version beats the crap out of this one and it's drawn out heavy handedness. In the plus column, Van Dyke's version does try to portray Marie in a more sympathetic light as a victim rather than a selfish bitch. It also offers more in the way of a biography rather than Coppola's snapshot that tries to make you forget the died by decapitation. The Shearer/Power romance seemed forced (just as I forced myself to finish it) and the running time was way too long, but this version isn't entirely awful and for as much as I love black and white this is definitely a movie that should've been done in color. And hat's off to Norma Shearer for having the bravery (and remember we're talking 1938 here) for looking like complete and utter shit before the inevitable decapitation scene years before getting ugly was a surefire way to get and Oscar.

Read all 6 featured audience ratings