The only time the three Barrymores—John, Lionel, and Ethel—appeared together was in this 1932 film; if nothing else, it proves how inequitably the talent was distributed in the family. Lionel, bug-eyed and unendurable, is Rasputin (his crepe beard glistens with crumbs of chewed scenery), and Ethel is regal and barely visible as the empress. Which leaves John, the best actor, cast in the least interesting part as Prince Yousoupoff (who, by then an emigre living in London, promptly sued MGM for libel). Richard Boleslawski, an early Hollywood exponent of the Method, directed.