When A Royal Scandal first came out, I probably would have considered it saucy and sophisticated and very funny. Times have changed. It's now old-fashioned, spiceless sauce, unsophisticated, and not at all funny. I watched 45 minutes without laughing and then gave up. I don't know at what point Preminger took over for Lubitch when he died and perhaps Lubitch might have wound up making it sophisticated and comic even for today (as he did others, notably Trouble in Paradise); but Preminger was the wrong choice to complete this one. Tallulah, who sparkled on Broadway (when young, I saw her in Private Lives), was so-what? here. She read her lines well enough, but the dialogue itself was mediocre and predictable. Much blame must go to writer Edwin Justus Mayer (of the delighful Midnight), who faltered here.
Review of A Royal Scandal
