[2] While visiting Vienna incognito, Russian Grand Duke Peter (Robert Young) is lured from a masquerade ball by the beautiful Maria (Maureen O'Sullivan), only to find himself the prisoner of Polish nationalists.

Because their previous petitions for clemency were intercepted and never reached the Tsar, the Poles task secret agent Baron Stephan Wolensky (William Powell) to deliver the letter.

Since he is already going to Saint Petersburg, Wolensky's friend, Prince Johann (Henry Stephenson), asks him to deliver a pair of ornate candlesticks to a princess.

[1] Bosley Crowther (bylined B.R.C) praised the film in his July 9, 1937, review for The New York Times: “The Baroness Orczy, one of light literature’s most deserving noblewomen, has seldom if ever enjoyed handsomer screen treatment...the producers have breathed debonair life into a shopworn tale of intrigue and espionage, opening the action brilliantly and suddenly as a popping champagne cork at a masked ball in Vienna and taking it on an itinerary of world capitals which includes...a perfectly enchanting St. Petersburg, on which the snow falls in great, soft, downy, Tchekovian flakes – and what if they are corn flakes?

Robert Young, as the susceptible son of the czar (who was apparently being difficult in those days about Poland) is a triumph of grand-ducal make-up and bearing; Maureen O’Sullivan, with the tree bark combed out of her hair,[3] is charming and spunky as the Polish beauty...Frank Morgan...is agreeably Frank Morganish; Henry Stevenson...is splendid as what the Soviets would assuredly call a decadent aristocrat.

And the list goes on...(T)he story is the old one about the two secret agents who fall in love while engaged on intersecting missions, and depends for its effects on plot manipulations as studied and formal as a ballet, but in this case it is narrated deftly and plausibly with a wealth of purely cinematic embellishments.

An inventory of its assets must include rich and tasteful production, directorial finesse, skillful editorial joinery of scene to scene, and casualness and grace of acting—all of which combine to make of “The Emperor’s Candlesticks” one of the pleasantest surprises of the summer.”[4] According to TCM's Jeremy Arnold: “The studio lavished huge amounts of money and effort on the film, a true 'A' production with a formidable cast and sumptuous sets and costumes...Today, it's that glossy star power, given the full MGM treatment, which makes The Emperor's Candlesticks fun to watch.”[5] Credit for the qualities that won high praise from Bosley Crowther at the time (see above) belongs to: Producer John W. Considine Jr.; Director Geo.

Writers Harold Goldman, Monckton Hoffe and Herman J. Manckiewiz worked from the novel by Baroness Orczy with additional dialogue provided by Hugh Mills, John Meehan and Erich von Stroheim[5][6] This was the third—and last—film co-starring Luise Rainer and William Powell.