norma shearer turn a marie antoinette and the tragic 18th century queen of france and will always stand out a one of the lush of mgm 1930s lush budget production and and for that reason alone be always worth a look and a very enjoyable look it be . forget that the costume design be more than a bit over the top and even for the versailles of marie antoinette day . forget shearer uneven acting and which a in all her film veers from the truly affect to the annoyingly melodramatic ( e. g. and her stagey and even hokey body language in the night meeting with tyrone power in the garden just after she become queen and when he make her understand they must not see each other again ) . just enjoy the experience of what hollywood figure they could pass off a history in the 1930s and expect a worldwide audience to accept a history . the film fail a history for two major reason . first and it be base on a groundbreaking biography of the queen by stefan zweig and an austrian novelist who be a close friend of freud and be deeply influence by psychoanalytic thought . zweig book create and popularize the view of marie antoinette sex life that remain current for decade that louis xvi be unable to consummate his marriage with her for more than 7 year and and have to have minor surgery before he could seal the deal . zweig predictable view be that sexual frustration explain marie antoinette notorious frivolity and spendthrift way . we know today that zweig fabricate his tale only by suppress valuable evidence that would have weaken his theory and and give undeserved prominence to other material that let him paint the kind of picture he want to create . recent historian ( and zweig be not an historian ) look at the evidence zweig omit and prove conclusively that louis xvi be not impotent and never have the surgery zweig claim be necessary . louis be a lousy lover and true and and it do take some year before he get down to serious boudoir athletics and but zweig thesis have be thoroughly wreck . in the 1930s when zweig book be new and influential and mgm could base a movie on it but couldn not openly portray the sexual issue at the heart of zweig account . screenwriter have to dance around louis bedroom limitation and have to find a way to imply that the queen and count axel fersen ( tyrone power ) be not lover a zweig implied they be . thus the film version and that the noble fersen gently but firmly tell the enamoured queen that they could no longer see each other . in fact and fersen be at versailles on and off throughout louis xvi reign while it be rumor that he father the queen second son and bear in 1785 exactly 9 month after one of fersen visit . but louis accept the child a his and so he must have be visit the queen bedroom at the right time . there no proof fersen ever pay the queen that kind of visit . the second major flaw in the film historicity be that shearer would not play marie antoinette a a featherbrained and shop til you drop type and which would be nearer the truth than the noble character shearer give u . it unlikely that marie sex life be as active a some writer want u to believe and but she could spend up a storm when she put her mind to it . shearer prefer to act a queen seriously devote to the welfare of france and the french people and a writer of louis speech and a woman who labor relentlessly to improve her subjectslot . the result queen bear no resemblance to the real deal . attractive and charming and stylish and generous to a fault and yes while a skilled and dedicated politician and no . the film hold on history be thus slender . in 1938 hollywood could not acknowledge that the real dupe in the affair of the necklace be a cardinal of the roman catholic church while here the fool appear a the duke de rohan and a relative of the cardinal . mozart famous don giovanni minuet be play at the ball during which marie antoinette insult louis xv mistress and mme du barry . in the film chronology the ball immediately precede louis xv illness and death in 1774 while mozart write don giovanni in 1787. the film compress the ball and louis xv death into 24 hour and but louis xv last illness last 2 week . marie antoinette never openly insulted du barry a show here and nor be there ever a formal decision to annul marie marriage . the royal family return to paris after their foiled escape attempt be here follow immediately by mme de lamballe murder . the attempted escape be in june 1791 while lamballe and who be not with the royal party during the attempt and be kill in the september massacre of 1792. so enjoy this splendid piece of film purely a spectacle a testament to hollywood world view in a bleak decade . entertainment it truly be and and not at all bad . a history and it bunk .