Today’s post was written by Max Korn, an archives technician at the National Archives in College Park.
“All names, characters, places, and incidents in this story are entirely fictional and the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.” Ever noticed at the end of movies a disclaimer similar to this one is at the end of the credits and asked why the studio has a message like that? Well, it started in 1932 with the film Rasputin and the Empress directed by Richard Boleslawski and a Russian princess.
Working in Archives II, I have had the pleasure of going through the State Department Name index cards for a few months now, making sure the cards are in good condition to be digitized later. I came across this index filed under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and the first thing that caught my eye was that it was double sided, something that is unusual and rare for these cards. And as someone interested in film history, I decided to dive a little further into the story behind the card.
After a little search through the records I found the few documents indexed on this card dated between January 9th and 27th, 1934. There was correspondence between William Orr, MGM’s attorney, and first to Cordell Hull (Secretary of State [SoS]) and then to Wallace Murray (Department of Eastern Affairs [DNEA]).
Mr. Orr was reaching out to the State Department for assistance in a case he had in England. The case was between Princess Irina and her husband, Prince Felix Yusupov of Russia, and Mr. Orr’s client, MGM Studios. The Princess’s disdain regarding her portrayal in the film Rasputin and the Empress drove the dispute. In the film, Russian Princess Natasha woos the mystical healer Rasputin and helps him move up in power before he is killed at the hands of Prince Chegodieff. While much of the film is fictitious and many names of the royalty were changed, the character of Princess Natasha was modeled after Princess Irina, who believed that the portrayal was negatively impacting her public image.
In the letters Mr. Orr was trying to enlist U.S. diplomats who had been stationed in Russia during Rasputin’s time to testify in favor of the studio. (1916). His hope was they could watch the film, determine if the claims of the defendant were true, and if so, serve as a witness in the case. Mr. Orr believed he could get favorable testimony with American diplomats, who would be sympathetic to the American-based MGM, as opposed to having British witnesses, who Mr. Orr was concerned would be sympathetic towards royalty and favor the defense.
Hon. Charles E. Wilson and Hon. North Winship were Mr. Orr’s preferred choices because they were in Russia at the same time as Rasputin’s death, December 1916. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Winship were respectively the Secretary and Counselor of the Embassy at St. Petersburg during this time but had moved to other embassies by 1934. Mr. Orr had other persons of interest but Mr. Wilson and Mr. Winship were the most likely candidates that the State Department would approve and that would not return to Russia for a tour of duty.
Reading the letters and memos from January 10 to 26, 1934 sent to Mr. Orr by the State Legal Advisor (the letters were headed with this title but I could not find a name attached to them), DNEA and Wallace Murray it sounded like the State Department did not want any American involvement in the case. In the letters to Mr. Orr, the State Legal Advisor, was being cautious about the use of American figures in a case in Britain involving Russians. Mr. Wilson was posted in Belgrade in 1934 when Yugoslavia was seeing an influx of Russian immigrants who were not fond of the Yugoslav ruling family, and the State Department feared that involvement in this case could put him in certain trouble and “personal embarrassment.” And Mr. Winship was posted in Copenhagen at this time.
Across the letters it looked like the State Legal Advisor, Mr. Murray and others in the Department did not want any American representatives in this case. In different letters Mr. Orr was advised to look at British officers instead for the “opinions of American officers many miles away from Great Britain could have little relevancy to the question at issue.” But Mr. Orr was persistent and tried to get someone on his side and allow his request to move forward. Unfortunately I found very few replies from Mr. Orr in the small collection so I have no insight into what his thoughts were on all of this. I would imagine he would have been frustrated and desperate for this case to go his way.
Two telegrams, dated January 27, 1934, were written to both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Winship which said that they might be in contact with someone from MGM (Mr. Orr) about a case in England involving their time in Russia and if they chose to give a testimony after watching the film (Rasputin and the Empress), they have permission from the Sate Department to accept. The only stipulation was that the officers would only give statements that would be personal, unofficial and not mention their current official positions. The telegrams were never sent, evidenced by the word “Canceled” written across the pages.
The final letter in the collection was a formal reply to the first letter sent by Mr. Orr, asking the State Department for assistance in his case. The final, official conclusion to the request was a definitive no. The Department rejected the use of US representatives in this case and advised Mr. Orr to find other witnesses who were in Russia during the period of questioning.
The final documents in the collection were an unusual surprise to find in the Archives in general; it was two pages of newspaper clippings about the trial. It looked like they were present to give some context and an update to the results of the correspondence from all of January 1934. The clippings were from a few different papers of the time, with the Washington Post being the most common among the clippings. The clippings were dated between February 28 and March 6 1934. From the clippings I gathered that the Princess was represented by Sir Patrick Hastings (a British trial lawyer) and MGM by Sir William Jowitt (another British trial lawyer). The Princess was suing to prevent all theaters in Great Britain from showing Rasputin and the Empress and had plans on filing similar cases in other countries as well. Prince Yusupov was put on the witness stand to give his account on the night of Rasputin’s death for he was the one who killed the famed healer. The trial lasted a total of 2.5 hours, resulting in the Princess winning the case and being awarded £25,000, or $125,000 in 1934 (or about $2.9 million in 2024). What was interesting was that Mr. Orr was not mentioned in the clippings, nor was there any comments anywhere from the State Department about the trial. The clippings were only present to show what happened after their last correspondence.
This trial was never labeled as a “trial of the century” but it almost had the makings of one. An exiled Russian Princess is suing a major American studio for portraying her in, according to her, an unflattering light, and she won. The newspaper clipping in the collection did not portray it as anything other than a simple trial with high power defendants and once it was over, the Russian royals continued their lives in France. In the end, this trial scared movie studios to start putting the disclaimer in their movies to avoid any future lawsuit about misrepresenting real life figures.