The Czarina's Secret is a 1928 MGM silent fictionalized film short in two-color Technicolor. It was the fourth film produced as part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Great Events" series.

The Czarina's Secret
Directed byR. William Neill
Written byRussell Hickson
Produced byHerbert T. Kalmus
StarringOlga Baclanova
Sally Rand
Lucio Flamma
David Mir
Production
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Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • March 17, 1928 (1928-03-17)
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English Intertitles
Budget$20,068.54[1]

Production

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The film was shot over five days at the Tec-Art Studio in Hollywood.[2] The budget, slightly over $20,000, made it one of the more "higher priced productions" in the "Great Events" series.[3] Cast members Sally Rand and Lucio Flamma had appeared in Technicolor sequences for Cecil B. deMille's The King of Kings less than a year earlier. As with the previous "Great Events" production, The Lady of Victories, The Czarina's Secret made extensive, experimental use of night scenes.[4]

Release

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The released version of The Czarina's Secret was well-reviewed, prompting Film Spectator to state that "Technicolor has brought its process to a point of perfection that our big producers can not ignore much longer," and surmising that audience demand for Technicolor would soon be on the increase.[5]

Preservation status

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The Czarina's Secret is considered a lost film.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Layton, James and David Pierce. The Dawn of Technicolor: 1915-1935. George Eastman House, 2015, p. 332.
  2. ^ Layton and Pierce 332
  3. ^ Slide, Anthony. "The 'Great Events' Series". Silent Topics: Essays on Undocumented Areas of Silent Film. Scarecrow Press, 2005, p. 38.
  4. ^ Layton and Pierce 189
  5. ^ Layton and Pierce 192
  6. ^ Layton and Pierce 332
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