 Upon its initial release in 1932, the movie was the subject of a  lawsuit issued by Prince Feliks Yusupov (qv), who had actually  been involved in the death of the real Grigory Rasputin (qv).  Although names in the film were changed (Yusupovs character, as  portrayed by John Barrymore (I) (qv), was called Prince "Paul  Chegodieff"), Yusupov recognized Diana Wynyard (qv)s character of  "Princess Natasha" to be that of his wife, Princess Irina. Yussoupov  sued for libel as a result of a scene which suggested that his wife  had been raped by Rasputin. MGM lost the suit, and the scene was  cut, which rendered Wynyards character somewhat incomprehensible if  the viewer of the film is not aware of this cut 