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A sympathetic rewrite of Jack London’s book brought together Charlton Heston and Michèle Mercier, for whom this production marked the last work on a film after the intense years since her 1957 debut. She came back in front of the camera a few more times after than, but never for long. Let's see if her current series convinces us of anything. In The Call of the Wild, she followed the code of her film predecessors, who so often found themselves at the turning point of their own careers with their stories in the Wild West.

A new, color, and widescreen adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's famous play "Liebelei" (1895), which made Magda Schneider famous in the early 1930s and had a major influence on her daughter Romy in the late 1950s. It should have been quite different this time, but it was still just another costume spectacle from the idealized Austro-Hungarian Empire. There is even a scene with Emperor Franz Joseph I. However, Romy's meeting with Alain Delon turned the entire Papas Kino upside down.

The Hungarian novel "Monpti" from 1934 was the starting point, and its adaptation became something that Käutner wanted to make far different from his daddy's cinema. However, the result is not convincing. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz were still children in the previous film The Girl and the Legend. Now, they were about to experience an anti-romance in Paris. To move away from the German-Austrian area and gloss over anti-morality in a side story. In any case, Gábor Vaszary, the author of the book, is also the author of the screenplay together with the director, so it is, in fact, an adaptation by the author.

A charming second meeting between the Schneider mother and daughter and Ernst Marischka. After the film The Story of Vickie, the Queen and her young countess turn into a Salzburg girl and her Viennese aunt. Their relationship is more balanced and they both have their little secrets and enjoy their visits. Romy-Stanzi meets her German knight Siegfried-Willy, and Magda-Therese finally has a lucky break with her Joseph-Hofrat when she becomes the court caterer for the imperial banquets. On top of all this, we witness one charming misunderstanding through the masquerade ball. The meeting of the two emperors Franz Joseph I and Wilhelm II then brings this Viennese adventure to an excellent end, accompanied by an extraordinary march. This film is a little-remembered bit of middle ground between The Story of Vickie and the Sissi trilogy, which is a shame because it is really enjoyable. P. S. I also quite fell in love with Gretl Schörg.

There are just so many German positives at the English royal court. :) Long live the first remake of Romy Schneider's good 1950s career. The original version of The Story of Vickie was made by Jenny Jugo in 1936. I can't help but think this is the kind of movie that, unlike Casablanca, makes me smile all the time. The fireplace scene is unbeatable. "You put in too much wood." "Now you’ve put in too much paper." And to everyone who compares Victoria to Sissi - this was the first film Romy worked with Ernst Marischka, then came A March for the Emperor and the Sissi trilogy was the culmination of their successful collaboration. Surprised? So this is not a concoction. Next time, read the filmographies.

Let’s forget about the exclusive evaluation of the debuting Romy (then still Schneider-Albach), it’s only her film from today's point of view, unfortunately. The film features the great duo of Magda Schneider and Paul Klinger, Willy Fritsch, and Hertha Feiler. There could have been less tulle, though.

Thank you to Michael Herbig for a reckoning with the Good Old Days. I love that instead of Ludwig II, I can safely place this film alongside the Marischka trilogy. Franz!

In the first half, Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress seems to be more of a continuation of the first part of the trilogy. This is because of the return of Néné (played by Uta Franz) to the stage, which was missing in the middle film. But Néné's presence really only serves as a side-storyline in the section about the lonely Franz Joseph I during his Elizabeth's stay in Hungary. And at that time I couldn't even see Romy, perhaps because she was shooting these scenes already inoculated? Regardless, given the great success of the Alpine reconciliation of the second film, the private imperial honeymoon is repeated here too in a small sequence. Fortunately (for the plot of the film), these are soon clouded by Sissi's illness, and that's when a great dramatic breakthrough occurs thanks to an emotional triangle, as Franz's mother Sophie informs her son about her suspicions of Sissi's early demise. Thus, the Empress's fateful years are finally becoming the old familiar genius Marischka at the level of par excellence! Sissi is sick in Madeira, Ludovika's mother comes to see her, and suddenly a trip to Corfu is possible. Sissi then recovers and nothing prevents the final victorious campaign of the imperial family to the Lombard-Venetian Kingdom... It really is too bad that a fourth Sissi film hasn't been made yet; I'd be most interested to see how Marischka would have handled the death of Sissi's first-born daughter. Unfortunately, because of Romy's defiance, that never happened, and I have not yet been able to find out what happened to the manuscript. My only regret is that with each installment the films became more elaborate, the sets more sumptuous, the music more haunting, and in the last sequel, they even managed to drop the rather cheesy documentary shots of animals (deer or chamois). I am still amazed at the skills of the make-up artists of that time because I have never seen such great, unrecognizable wigs that Romy wore anywhere else. Just think of the tragic imitations in Angelique films, which had been made ten years later... However, the best thing about the trilogy is the viewing experience, which alerts me to new features of the Sissi stories each time - and I've been watching them for half my life. Last time, I almost melted at the clever combination of Colonel Böckl's flawless humor, the Milanese nobility, and the grandeur of a visit to Venice. Yet I have rarely had the courage to appreciate even the small storyline about Elizabeth's eldest brother, Ludwig, who married Henriette Mendel, later the unmarried Lady of Wallersee. In the end, I had to appreciate every minute of it again. :)

Sissi: The Young Empress is exactly the kind of film the title promises. It's incredible how the lead actress Romy Schneider matured after only a year. After the first film, which was "only" a reinforcement of the legendary story that took place before the wedding of Franz Joseph I and Elisabeth of Austria in the years 1853-1854 in the Ischl thermal baths and afterward in Vienna, we now come to the beginning of the discord of the young imperial couple and their duties. In 1855, their first daughter Sophie is born and Sissi becomes actively involved in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise. The fact remains that this was her most important political act, which, however, did not culminate until 1867. We could equally argue about the ideal household environment of the Empress' parents, Ludovika and Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria. However, in the depiction of the situation at the Possenhofen Castle on Lake Starnberg, the late period of the couple, when they were already reconciled, was also appropriately chosen. Despite all the theoretical criticisms, it is thus possible to fully accept this film as a magnificent historical story, excellently shot and standing above all on the great set design and authenticity of the setting. After more than 50 years, it is quite striking that the method of Marischka's work has found a certain, though unintended, resonance only in Coppola’s contemporary Marie Antoinette. In this case, I am referring to the appropriate choice of events from the life of the monarch without necessarily depicting situations familiar from a textbook to the benefit of the main message that even a monarch can be human. Often, they are even a young person with perfectly ordinary worries. The Elizabeth that the opponents of this trilogy are calling for became the Elizabeth in her later years, and if these films only describe her youth, there would be no point in rushing forward and looking forward to her death. It was about improving on all the good things that the first film brought us and even adding something a little extra. The best part was the literal reign of the established cast, who felt more confident and natural in their roles with each shot. Alongside Romy, Karlheinz Böhm also got more acting opportunities, Magda Schneider and Gustav Knuth were simply irresistible, and Vilma Degischer and Josef Meinrad once again made wonderful opposites.

The key collaboration between Romy Schneider and Ernst Marischka began with her third film, The Story of Vickie, and continued immediately with A March for the Emperor. It culminated in the Sissi Trilogy, which could have seen at least a fourth film if Romy hadn't been working on other projects in the meantime and if her adolescent hormones hadn't been running riot.