Marie Antoinette (1938 film)

Marie Antoinette is a 1938 film produced by MetroGoldwynMayer. It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette. Based upon the 1932 biography of the illfated Queen of France by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, it had its Los Angeles premiere at the legendary Carthay Circle Theatre, where the landscaping was specially decorated for the event.

In Vienna, 15yearold Marie Antoinette Norma Shearer is informed by her mother, Empress Marie Therese of Austria Alma Kruger, that Marie is to marry the future King of France, the Dauphin Louis XVI Robert Morley. The young princess is excited to meet her future husband and live as a queen, but the Dauphin she married is actually a shy man, more at home with locksmithing than attending parties at the court at Versailles. After they are married, Marie tries desperately to please her husband, and after some trepidation, the Dauphin realizes he can trust Marie and tells her he cannot produce heirs. Without children to occupy her time and attention, Marie is bored and associates with the powerhungry Duc dOrleans Joseph Schildkraut, even though the Dauphin does not like him.On their second wedding anniversary, Marie is insulted by Madame du Barry Gladys George, the mistress of King Louis XV John Barrymore, who gives Marie a gift of an empty cradle with a poem critical of Maries inability to produce an heir to the throne. Marie is enraged, but the Dauphin is too weak to have his grandfather, King Louis XV, punish Madame du Barry. Later, at a costume party, she meets the Swedish Count Axel Fersen Tyrone Power and introduces him as a member of the Russian nobility as a party game. She then wagers and loses a necklace worth 200,000 livres, which causes her mothers ambassador, Count Mercy Henry Stephenson to scold her for her wanton behavior and disregard for the people. Marie is irritated by the scolding, but pays the ambassador little mind. ........

Source: Wikipedia