The Last Command (1928)

Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, cousin to the Czar, is a general in the Imperial Russian army during the darkest days of World War I. He tries to maintain a very delicate balance between his loyalty to his ruler and his patriotism and humanist feeling for his men. His intelligence officers capture two dedicated revolutionaries, Lev Andreyev and the beautiful Natalie Dabrova. Although he imprisons Andreyev, he becomes infatuated with the beautiful Natalie and quickly installs her as his mistress even though he knows fully well her Bolshevik leanings. She initially agrees in order to use her position to gather information but soon finds herself drawn to Sergius Alexander's humanity. After the inevitable happens and the White Army is defeated, the Duke, broken in body and spirit, finds himself in 1928 Hollywood as an obscure extra. When he is recognized by Andreyev, now a successful Hollywood director, the former revolutionary is struck by the irony of hiring his old nemesis for a war film and casting him as a general.