Marie Antoinette (1938) on Netflix
Empress Maria Theresa arranges a marriage between her daughter Maria Antonia and the Dauphin Louis-Auguste. She arrives at court to find a husband who prefers locksmithing to parties.
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- IMDb7.3/103,628 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1769, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria informs her daughter Maria Antonia that she is to become the wife of the Dauphin Louis-Auguste, and one day queen of France. Marie Antoinette is eager for her new position and finds a shy husband who would rather occupy himself with locksmithing than attend parties. King Louis XV's mistress, Madame du Barry, marks the second wedding anniversary by sending Marie Antoinette an empty cradle with a poem about her childlessness, and Louis-Auguste will not stand up to his grandfather. At a gaming house Marie Antoinette meets the Swedish Count Axel Fersen and loses a valuable necklace; the Austrian ambassador Count Mercy scolds her for it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Marie Antoinette (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Norma Shearer's gowns for the film had a combined weight of over 1,768 pounds, the heaviest being a 108-pound wedding dress made from hundreds of yards of white silk satin hand-embroidered in gilt thread.
- The film's budget reached a then-enormous $2.9 million, and after calculating the huge expense of its costumes and sets, plans to render it in color were scrapped for fear Technicolor would inflate the budget further.
- Costume designer Adrian traveled to France and Austria in 1937 and studied paintings of Marie Antoinette under a microscope so the embroidery on the film's costumes could be identical.
- William Randolph Hearst first planned the film as a 1933 vehicle for Marion Davies, but a clash with Louis B. Mayer after the failure of her film Operator 13 sent the couple to neighboring Warner Bros.
- Irving Thalberg planned for Charles Laughton to play Louis XVI, but Laughton declined the part after lengthy deliberations.
- The film's Versailles ballroom was built twice as large as the real one for grander ball sequences, and genuine French period furniture, some thought to have come from Versailles, was bought and shipped to Hollywood.
- Marie Antoinette was the last project of Irving Thalberg, who died in 1936 while it was still in the planning stage; his widow, Norma Shearer, remained committed to it even as her enthusiasm for her film career waned.
