"A Royal Scandal" has unfairly gained the reputation of a minor curio, with much ink having been spilt over its troubled production history and unusual Preminger-Lubitsch dual-director credit. Indeed, the opening scenes merely creak along, but once we're introduced to Tallulah Bankhead's exquisitely randy take on Catherine the Great, the movie becomes a a bawdy riot. Bankhead's risqué take on Catherine the Great is oversexed and shameless, yet wise and judicious when she needs to be.
Much of the movie's…
