Marlene Dietrich stars as Catherine the Great in this visually extravagant, expressionistic chronicle of her rise from innocent German princess to Empress of Russia. With the The Scarlet Empress, Von Sternberg perfected his trademark elaborate mise-en-scene and use of the close-up, and Dietrich tested the boundaries of the newly enacted Hayes Code with her depiction of Catherine the Great’s barely contained, subversive sexuality.