Ernst Lubitsch

[charliechaplinfan]

I've searched around but can't find a thread about Ernst Lubitsch.

He's made so many of my favorite films, here are 5 of my favorites

The Love Parade - it's difficult to pick a favorite from the Maurice Chevalier/Ernst Lubitsch collaborations, The Smiling Leiutenant, One Hour With You and The Merry Widow are as perfect. Lubitsch brought out the best in Chevalier and helped shape his film image one that Malmoulian, another of my favorite directors had a great success with. He brings out a different side of Jeanette Macdonald, a sexy one,one I was surprised at when I first watched Love Parade. Perhaps it's his European background, the feeling of an operetta that makes his films with Chevalier stand up so well today. I think if I had to pick the thing that sets Lubitsch out, it's his famous touch, how he can make the most innocuous scene feel a bit naughty. Not that Chevalier underplays his role, with a series of nods, winks, asides and sung lyrics we know exactly what he's thinking about. Lillian Roth and Lupino Lane are used to good effect as the valet and maid who mirror their masters. The soundtrack consists of very memorable songs and is very clear and not at all stagy. Paris Stay the Same, The Love Parade, Nobody's Using it Now and Anything To Please the Queen are so good.

Trouble in Paradise - a while since I've seen this movie but it's memory still stands out clearly. If Lubitsch had the perfect actor in Chevalier, I think he found his perfect actress in Miriam Hopkins, wonderful in The Smiling Leiutenent and marvellous here. Using Kay Francis as the counterpart works very well, they are opposite in looks, demeanour but united in the attraction to Herbert Marshall, never used as well as in this film. A wealth of supporting actors including Edward Everett Horton, Charlie Ruggles and C Aubrey Smith. There are movies made in the precode era revolving around theft and blackmail but none as good as this one.

Design For Living - I'm not sure that this would be in many people's top 5 Lubitsch but the whole story just makes me chuckle, it's so naughty and deliciously told. Miriam Hopkins again boards a train and is fascinated by two men sat opposite her, both asleep, she draws them and when they wake up they are both attracted to her. The problem is that she can't make up her mind, the two men are Gary Cooper and Fredric March in their prime, so who wouldn't be undecided. Add to the mix Edward Everett Horton as another suitor. What to do, what to do, well have both. Only in a precode and only Lubitsch could make it feel like the only solution to their problem.

[JackFavell]

Well, I was trying to list my favorites and I realized that they are almost all my favorites! I should list the ones I don't like:

Anna Boleyn

There. That's it.

I highly recommend Die Puppe (The Doll). It has another memorable opening, a little surprise for the audience and the movie is just wonderfully magical and very, very funny.

Oh, and I am one of the few who really delights in Design for Living! I loved your review - perfect.

[charliechaplinfan]

I struggle to chose between The Shop Around the Corner and To Be Or Not To Be as my fourth choice. We've discussed the former recently, so I'll plump for To Be Or Not To Be.

To Be or Not To Be - Carole Lombard looks wonderful here, so assured, so perfect in the role of Maria Tura, so in command and perfectly matched to Lubtisch, the possibility of them making further films together was not to be. But we have this perfect film, another poke at the Nazis from Hollywood. Jack Benny and Robert Stack both in Maria's thrall. I've only seen this movie once, very late at night and not for a very long time but I was thrilled by it. Perhaps someone else can fill in the gaps.

My favorite Lubitsch movie from after the code was introduced is Cluny Brown

Cluny Brown - I just think this film is fabulous and somehow hoodwinked the censors because parts of it are very suggestive, like a subtle Carry on Film without Sidney James's suggestive laughter. Jennifer Jones only made the one movie with Lubitsch and thankfully she made this one, I don't think there is anyone better to be Cluny on screen. She gets excited about plumbing and is always getting herself into embarrassing situations. Her persian cat feeling, rubbing herself on the sofa in front of two men when her uncle walks in is enough for her to be dispatched into service, where she manages to confuse the owners of Friars Carmel into thinking she is a friend not the servant they were expecting. Lots of bigs at the English upperclasses being rather stupid. Cluny has an admirer called Adam Bellinski a refugee from Prague played by Charles Boyer. When she's caught talking to him in the corridor about the passion to 'bang away' (I wish I could find the exact quote on the imdb, it's priceless and far better than I can reproduce). There's Peter Lawford who is after the Honorable Betty Cream, the only person apart from Bellinski who seems to understand what's going on, she 'sit's a horse well'

[charliechaplinfan]

This one really is my favorite Lubitsch, it has the adenoidal Richard Haydn as the chemist who has intentions towards Cluny until she unleashes her passion for plumbing and his mother Una O'Connor. Every character in this film is funny and deliciously drawn. The servants who highly dissapprove of Cluny and her friendship with Mr Bellinski move the comedy along. They don't approve of Bellinski either who is staying at Friars Carmel because Andrew the son think he's a brave man in danger of being hunted down by the Nazis, we never know whether he is, he never seems that bothered and he sponges the free lodging without embarrassment, just as he delights in annoying the chemist by opening the chemist door everytime he goes past. He secretly loves Cluny but she hasn't realised it, even though he gently hints at her everytime he's with her. They must kick one another if they get attracted to one another says Cluny, still he stays hopeful, she dreamt of him one night, 'what did he do?' 'He carried her off to his tent' ' Really Cluny, what happened.' ' I kicked myself and woke up'. He's not above visiting the honorable Betty Cream at night either, with dishonorable intentions.

I just love the character of Cluny Brown and the way Jennifer Jones plays her. This is the most perfect of films, the first viewing I liked it, the second viewing I thought it was perfect, sometimes it takes a second viewing of films to pick up everything the director is trying to say. This is definetly one of those films.

I didn't list any of Lubitsch's silents. I do like The Doll and The Oyster Princess, The Marriage Circle and The Student Prince of Heidelberg but find his historical films a bit stodgy.

There are a couple of Lubitsch films I haven't got into, one is Heaven Can Wait and Ninotchka for me was a bit of a let down (I'd seen Silk Stockings first and Melvyn Douglas leaves me a little cold) It struck me when thinking about these movies just how good at casting Lubitsch was and moulding his actors. Most of his talkies are absolutely perfect in casting using established figures like Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper to great effect. There never seems to be any miscasting or underuse of supporting actors, his use of supporting cast is one of the consistently richest i cinema.

[moira finnie]

There are a couple of Lubitsch threads around that readers might enjoy along with this one:

Lubitsch Silents

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg

Lubitsch Alert

The Shop Around the Corner

[feaito]

Lubistch is high on my list...he's simply filmed too many films I don't only like but LOVE...."One Hour With You", "Smiling Lieutenant", "Design for Living" -very high on my list too Alison, I think it's perfect, notwithsnading it's not really Coward, but it's better, it's LUBITSCH!!- "Trouble in Paradise", "Shop Around the Corner", "Cluny Brown" (what a great discovery thanks to you Alison), "Angel" (I don't mind the lackluster reviews, for me it's sublime), "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" (Ditto!!), "Ninotchka", "Broken Lullaby", "The Merry Widow", "The Student Prince"....I think the only Lubitsch I haven't enjoyed is "That Uncertain Feeling"...Tried twice.

[JackFavell]

I really like Heaven Can Wait, I've only seen it once.

I always think "Ninotchka again?" when they show it on TCM, but I have to admit that it is irresistible for me when it's on - It floors me how perfect Garbo is for this role, and also how really satirical it is - I think it actually might be the most (gently) biting of Lubitsch's films - though they all have that iron fist in a velvet glove feel to them at some point - To Be or Not To Be, Cluny Brown, Shop Around the Corner, they all take a whack at something, but are so enjoyable that you can't really place them as social commentary movies. Ninotchka is just plain right about Communist Russia, and ALSO just plain right about western democracy! That is why it hasn't aged... plus it has the wonderful Felix Bressart, Sig Rumann, and Alexander Granach.... and a host of other greats in bit parts - Bela Lugosi, George Tobias, Gregory Gaye (be still my heart), and the really nasty piece of work, Ina Claire - who actually got some of my sympathy this time around. How old are you when you start seeing both sides to almost everything? OLD.

I've only seen Cluny once and I suspect you are right, that as you watch over and over, it gets better - I loved it, but I am sure that I missed a LOT of the ideas in it just to get plot points into my brain.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'll have to try Heaven Can Wait again. I might like it second time around, it wasn't a bad film just not as sparkling as other Lubitsch films.

I agree with you Fernando, there is a wealth of Lubitsch films that I enjoy so much. I love Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Lubitsch uses Gary Cooper so well. I'm not a big fan of Cooper but I live his early comedies and he's no better than being directed by Lubitsch. Angel is a lovely film, Marlene is so luminous, she's lovely. I've just been reading bits of Harvey's Romantic Comedy book, a little about Lubitsch, he did not like Marlene Dietrich or Otto Preminger but they were the two people who came to his house after he'd died. Covered up at the time it seems that he died whilst making love to his mistress, unnamed, fitting somehow.

I forgot to mention Lady Windemere's Fan, a lovely silent, he captures so well the spirit of Wilde.

Wendy you'll enjoy watching Cluny Brown again. Not one character is wasted, it's not just Cluny and Bellinski that are perfectly cast, the age difference between the two principles does not matter either, it's not very apparent, Cluny needs someone stable to lead her but give her free rein. Everyone else is perfectly cast too, Peter lawford has never been better used, the servants, the pharmacist and mother, the aristocrats, each contribute to the humour, the humour that is poked at them all, gently in some cases, very obviously in others. How he got away with such a dig at the British upper classes I'll never know, perhaps that's why I like it so much. As Bellinski says, is it Nuts to the squirrels or squirrels to the nuts?

[intothenitrate]

I just watched Design for Living again, and loved it more than ever. What delighted me most this time was the superb chemistry between March and Cooper in their roles as Tom and George. Of course they are supplied with brilliant dialogue to deliver, and the characters are drawn to be very complimentary "types." But the fun they seem to be having working together is really infectious. I found myself starting to chuckle even before they opened their mouths. Neither tried to upstage the other; they functioned as a well-coordinated unit. I wonder if they did any other films together? And was it them, or Lubitsch that made them sparkle so?

[JackFavell]

Design for Living is very under-rated - I didn't even watch it until this year, because I was worried I would not enjoy it, after having read that it was not very good for years - that's what I get for reading! I think you totally hit the nail on the head - it's the chemistry between the boys that makes the film so very enjoyable.

[feaito]

Ditto Wendy, I think the same about DFL...Why always the comparison with Coward's play, when Lubistch wanted to do something completely different with the story and succeeded completely at it?

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm a big fan of Design for Living, I always find I enjoy Gary Cooper more when he's not playing to my preconceptions of him, he's so good in thirties comedies and he's wonderfully teamed both with Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins both who seem more worldly than him. Both the physical differences and acting styles of March and Cooper add to the tension and camaraderie between the boys and Miriam Hopkins is born for precodes, I just think Design for Living is a splendidly naughty film, how Lubitsch ever got away with it I'll never know.

[feaito]

how Lubitsch ever got away with it I'll never know.

And thanks for that!

[charliechaplinfan]

Well, it seems I learn something new every day. Today's lesson is regarding the Lubitsch film One Hour With You which was, according to a book I'm reading on George Cukor, directed by George Cukor and not Ernst Lubitsch. It seems Lubitsch had over stretched himself and assigned Cukor to direct the remake of The Marriage Circle starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald but after two weeks Lubitsch wasn't happy and insisted on being present on set, the film was completed by Cukor with input from Lubitsch. Once Lubitsch saw the completed film he realised he wanted to take credit for it because it was so good, so Paramount told Cukor that his credit was being removed and Lubitsch's added. The author Patrick McGilligan has had access to the legal papers filed by Cukor against Paramount to have his director credit restored, this didn't happen. George had become friends with David Selznick and would eventually decamp to RKO to work for his friend. If this is true Cukor wasn't without balls to stand up to Paramount's Budd Schulberg.

One Hour With You does feel very different from the other Lubitsch comedies of the time, it feels American rather than European but I'd always felt this was because of the original film. Interesting nevertheless.

[JackFavell]

That's very interesting, I didn't know that, but it's my least favorite Lubitsch film, still charming, but without oomph. Perhaps this is why.