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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 581

The Last Command

192885 minUnited States
RomanceDrama

Synopsis

An ageing Russian émigré accepts work as a Hollywood extra and is issued the uniform of a general. The costume returns him to memories of command during the revolution and of two actors whose lives crossed his own. A director who recognises him turns the new assignment into a confrontation between past authority and present humiliation.

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Video edition
Wikimedia Commons
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified.
This copy runs
88:15
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Josef von Sternberg; The Last Command · Public domain

Cast

DirectorsJosef von Sternberg

Historical context

Emil Jannings's performance contributed to the first Academy Award for leading actor, which recognised more than one of his films. Josef von Sternberg places historical trauma inside a movie studio, where a person's former life can become material for someone else's spectacle.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film referenceDuke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — US term reference

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 13, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

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