The King Steps Out

The original version of the SISSI story as an operetta with a Hollywood twist: her sister Helene is to marry the young emperor, but is in love with someone else. To prevent the marriage, Sissi sneaks into court disguised as a dressmaker - and wins his heart herself ... Sternberg's second and last work for Columbia (after CRIME AND PUNISHMENT) was an unpleasant experience for the director from Vienna. Neither the environment nor his assigned leading actress, opera singer Grace Moore, suited him particularly well. In his autobiography, he kept silent about the film and would have preferred to exclude it from retrospectives. Meanwhile, THIRD MAN author Graham Greene praised the "unexpectedly light and amusing sequences ... a Lubitsch touch".