The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Drama, History, Romance • 1h 50m
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser, C. Aubrey Smith, Gavin Gordon, Olive Tell, Ruthelma Stevens, Davison Clark, Erville Alderson, Maria Riva, Jane Darwell, Edward Van Sloan, Akim Tamiroff, Marie Wells, Eric Alden, Elinor Fair, Julanne Johnston, Agnes Steele, Philip Sleeman, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Gerald Fielding, Richard Alexander, Nadine Beresford, Hal Boyer, James Burke, John Davidson, George Davis, Anna Duncan, May Foster, Ivan Linow, James A. Marcus, Eunice Murdock Moore, Patricia Patrick, Warner Richmond, Blanche Rose, Katherine Sabichi, Sam Savitsky, Dina Smirnova, Minnie Steele, Belle Stoddard, Kent Taylor, Jameson Thomas, Bruce Warren, Leo White, Harry Woods
About the film
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
- Featured Lists
- TSPDT
- 2026: #4562025: #4402024: #4322023: #4462022: #446
- Alternative Titles
- Catherine the Great
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Directors: Ernest B. Schoedsack & Merian C. Cooper
Director: Leo McCarey
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
UK MoC Blu-ray > Germany Wicked Vision Blu-ray > US Flicker Alley Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Frank Capra
Director: Josef von Sternberg
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
MoC slightly better than Kino Lorber http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-ray_reviews_76/anatahan_blu-ray.htm
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
All very old restoration, but Kino Lorber > Germany Universum > MoC. Kino Lorber Germany Blu-ray has more noise reduction while English version's noise reduction is kept at minimum. MoC has very week encoding and crushed blacks.
Sources:
caps-a-holic on MoC vs Germany
DVDBeaver on Kino Lorber vs MoC
2001 Kino Lorber DVD or 2003 Eureka DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray has better encoding than Criterion Blu-ray, both 4K restoration, see DVDBeaver caps
No caps on France Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed. The compression is better, but some of the grain is lost. Difference is pronounced in screen caps, but not likely to be noticed during playback, without a reference to compare it to. Comparisons
All discs use the same source transfer. It's not of the highest quality, and it includes some slight distortion, looping, clicks, pops, and hum. Criterion cleaned it up for their release, but unfortunately also lost a lot of fidelity in the process.
MGM NTSC DVD doesn't seem to have some of the more prominent distortion and has slightly different EQ but is otherwise the same.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.
DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Janus and thus Criterion likely to release 4K Blu-ray in 2027
Director: Hal Ashby
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
See caps https://slow.pics/c/lVdZaG0W
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal's 4K release is similar in encode quality, but has significant glitches in multiple frames. See comparisons 9-16 here: https://slow.pics/c/YkSVb3Ey
The pitch of the StudioCanal 4K's English audio is too high
Criterion has more extras than StudioCanal.
Director: Jacques Tati
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
Edit history
Maintained by the community
· last reviewed 1 year ago
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.