Last Command

VHS, 88 minutes, PARAMOUNT

The great German silent film actor Emil Jannings gives an Academy Award-Winning performance in this Josef von Sternberg masterpiece. As a Czarist general displaced from his Russian homeland, Jannings finds himself in a Hollywood boarding house awaiting the degrading call to work as a movie extra. By intercutting between "defeated" General and the action of the Russian revolution, von Sternberg depicts how far the high and mighty can fall. "The Last Command" was nominated for "Best Picture" in 1928, the first year the Academy Awards were given out. This is one of Gaylord Carter's most memorable Wurlitzer organ scores and perfectly captures the manic moods of the film.