Although the story of Marie Antoinette starts when Marie was a teenager, unlike in her Romeo and Juliet, Norma Shearer ages in this part. If she's not quite convincing as a teenager, Shearer more than makes up for it as the character of the luckless Queen of France ages into wife, mother and royalty. <br /><br />Norma was the dowager queen herself of the MGM lot by dint of her marriage and widowhood to the late chief of production Irving Thalberg. She got the first call on properties at MGM with the exception of Greta Garbo. <br /><br />The only problem with Marie Antoinette was the choice of a leading man. The story is such that her husband Louis XVI does not cut a romantic figure so none of the available leads at MGM would or could be considered for the part. Her great romantic love before she settled down into domesticity was Count Axel Fersen, the Swedish Ambassador and his screen time is probably not even 40 minutes. So Louis B. Mayer and Darryl Zanuck worked out a deal. MGM got the services of Tyrone Power who was Zanuck's number one male star at Fox. It was Power's last film outside of Fox until 1952's Mississippi Gambler.<br /><br />But without a doubt the best performance in the film is that of Robert Morley as the shy and bumbling Louis XVI. The adage at least taught in American schools was that if Louis XVI had been a king, he'd have stayed a king. One of the great ironies of history is that Louis XVI was the last thing from a tyrant you could be. If family inheritance didn't force the issue, he would have preferred being a clockmaker. And about matters of sex, he was at best ill informed. Morley brings out the whole range of Louis's personality and makes the audience really care about the tragedy befalling his family.<br /><br />Other performances of note are Joseph Schildkraut as the scheming Duke of Orleans who was not the prime mover of the events that took place as this film makes him to be. Also Gladys George as Madame Dubarry, the last favorite of Louis XV. What this film does not cover is what happens to Dubarry after Louis XV dies and Louis XVI takes the throne. She meets ironically the same end as Marie Antoinette although with hardly as much dignity.<br /><br />This was the final large scale film of John Barrymore who plays Louis XV who arranges the marriage of the ruling houses of France and Austria in alliance. Hereafter Barrymore left the big studio of MGM for smaller studios, taking roles in films well beneath his abilities, but due to dissipation, all he could handle. Still he cuts a fine figure here as Louis XV, who aptly prophesied, apres moi l'deluge.<br /><br />If it ain't good history, Marie Antoinette is great entertainment.