Ninotchka

The only word to describe this Ernst Lubitsch comedy is: sparkling.

Tremendously sweet and funny in that gentle way that was unique to Ernst Lubitsch comedies, "Ninotchka" features a winning Greta Garbo as a Soviet envoy dispatched to Paris to check up on the work of her comrades. They have been sent to sell the confiscated jewels of a Russian countess, played haughtily by Ina Claire. She refuses to let them go without a fight, and enlists the help of her attorney and playboy (Melvyn Douglas) to win them back. Unfortunately for her, he falls under the charms of Ninotchka, as do we.

I have never been a fan of Garbo or the moody brooding she was always asked to do in her films. Lubitsch completely understood the image she had in the public's collective mind, and so for the first half of this movie, Garbo presents a parody of herself, refusing to crack a smile despite Douglas's herculean efforts to make her. But then Ninotchka gradually begins to fall under the spell of Paris, its good food and fashionable hats, a pratfall involving Douglas is finally enough to make her laugh, and from that moment on, she's a delight. For an example of just how good a comedienne Garbo could be, watch Ninotchka's face as Douglas's character tells her corny joke after corny joke in an attempt to win a smile from her; or the scene set in a nightclub when Ninotchka discovers the capitalist wonders of champagne.

Grade: A+

This is a fantastic movie. I can't understand why some people have problems with it. Makes me wonder if we don't have some people recoiling at some innocent cracks made at the Soviet Union's expense. As a romantic comedy it has very few peers and is a great introduction to black and white films for those used only to color. There are a plethora of interesting secondary characters. Garbo is wonderful, of course, and Dougless is as good as I've seen him any film. Lubitsch's direction is masterly, but not 'ground-breaking', a fault for which some are willing to run him under the harrow -- a case of holding someone to impossible standards. Nobody can break new ground in every film -- sometimes we have to settle for mere masterly competence. See this film! Unless you happen to romanticize the former Soviet Union, you will enjoy it.

Ninotchka is a great film classic with great acting by Melvyn Douglas, who really supports Greta Garbo. Garbo is an actress with class and great abilities not found in movie stars today, she was ahead of her times, deep and spiritual. Her supporting actors, Sig Ruman used every expression he could to portray a fumbling Russian and Bela Lugosi showed the movie industry that he had great acting abilities he was never given a chance show to his many fans.

This film shows aspiring actors just how to perform to the highest level of their art.

Three comrades seek to sell expensive jewels, they'd been taken by the state, when it changed rules, now they're peddlers in Paris, pestered by a wealthy heiress, who's determined to get back, family heirloom. Ninotchka's sent to sort out all the mess, a stern and rigid woman in grey dress, but her fascia slowly falls, with the crumbling of her walls, as Leon opens doors, and gains access.

An absolutely delightful 1930s movie, sees Greta Garbo playing the hardnosed Ninotchka sent to resolve the mess created by three comical communist comrades, all brilliantly performed, while falling for the charms of Count Leon, a Paris playboy and a bit of a chancer.

An expertly-played and presented comedy that continues to be dogged by detractors for the oddest reasons. Some feel NINOTCHKA suffers compared to Lubitsch's earlier work, finding it formulaic alongside 1933's TROUBLE IN PARADISE. (I hadn't known Lubitsch had been given 'do-what-thou-wilt' privileges from the Hays Office - I'd labored under the delusion he faced the same restrictions in content and tone every other moviemaker did in 1939.) Other nay-sayers decry the film's jabs at Soviet collectivism as 'dated' if not 'unenlightened'. (Huh? You mean show trials and forced starvation of kulaks were GOOD things that a truly witty screenplay would celebrate?) Still other kibitzers squawk over the casting, of all things! (While it IS fun to picture William Powell or Robert Montgomery in the role of Leon, the boulevardier, Melvyn Douglas was never better than he is here. If he has his spotty moments, it's in those scenes where he must swoon with ardor, reciting dialogue that rings a tad purple to the ear; it's quite possible Powell or Montgomery would have fared even worse reading those lines.) Okay, enough defense - now let's go to NINOTCHKA's numerous strengths. Garbo is magnificent; she has a real knack for comedy (her deadpan entrance is hilarious) yet, as always, is able to break your heart with a look, a word, a gesture. Her three 'stooges' (Sig Rumann, Alexander Granach & Felix Bressart) are broadly funny and genuinely endearing. Ina Claire is everything her legend always claimed she was - though her character is icily calculating, you can't hate any woman who can make dialogue bristle like this. Lubitsch is in complete command throughout; his staging and pacing of the proceedings, masterful in its seeming effortlessness. Even the storied Metro glitz shines in NINOTCHKA, right down to the brilliant artifice of Cedric Gibbons' art direction (the Eiffel Tower sets especially). Last but not least is the superb screenplay by (among other hands) the team of Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder. Wisely, their satiric darts are dipped in a curare leavened by wit and sentiment, and while they are thrown with accuracy, their sting is never such that the satire sinks into the mire of political ideology. NINOTCHKA, after all, is about the triumph of love over politics, and to those who feel trapped in the prevailing toilet-ethic of the Farrelly Brothers' blood-poisoning of modern comedy, represents a much-needed antidote. Inoculate yourself at your earliest opportunity.