The Barrymores have been a major theatrical family for generations, but when I think about them, I normally think of siblings John, Ethel, and Lionel. This is the only film in which they appear together (in fact it was Ethel's screen debut), so more's the pity that it is something of an over-stuffed mess. (The fact that the print that I was watching was pretty poor didn't help either.) As my favourite critic, Pauline Kael, wrote, it's as if the three of them were acting in three different rooms.
No need to mention the well-known tale, which follows the Czar's family through their murder. What is potentially interesting here is the casting. While normally the showiest of the three, John takes the lesser role as the courtier who is trying to rid the family of the mad monk. However, in his long film career, John was never less than watchable, even in his final alcoholic years when he was probably reading off cue cards. The sinister role of Rasputin went to brother Lionel and he shakes it like a dog with a bone, hamming it up with relish. He was seldom given such meaty parts, especially when he spent the last ten years or so of his career in a wheelchair -- although he is a pretty mean villain in "It's a Wonderful Life". Sister Ethel is somewhat disposable in the role of the Czarina; some of her later film appearances -- there were not that many -- were more memorable, especially as Cary Grant's Cockney mum in "None by the Lonely Heart" (1944) -- a strange bit of casting for both of them.
Oddly enough I also saw Lionel a few days ago in the silent film "The Bells" (1926) -- based on an old war-horse of a play, where again his was the barn-storming villainous role; getting into financial trouble and wanting to protect his family, he murders a rich travelling merchant, but is then haunted by what he has done -- the sound of bells, which is an interesting touch for a so-called silent. However in this movie, the more memorable performance was given by Boris Karloff in his pre-horror days as a threatening "mesmerist" who tries to expose murderous Lionel, nearly acting him off the screen.
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