Miss Milliard

The Oyster Princess (1919) - 7.0

Some legit mentally good filmmaking going on here with some interesting shots

Absurdist humor that doesn't feel completely dated

Well put together sets with a solid narrative

Impressive film for the time

As disappointed as I was in the dramatic titles in Kino's LUBITSCH IN BERLIN series, this comic double feature more than makes up for it. It clearly shows that Ernst Lubitsch's true talent lay in comedy not dramatic spectacle and these movies serve as a blueprint for his later career in Hollywood. THE OYSTER PRINCESS (1919) is an outrageous farce about an overly pampered American tycoon ("I am not impressed" is his favorite reply) who tries to find a prince to marry his spoiled and impetuous daughter. It's not subtle but it's extremely funny. I DON'T WANT TO BE A MAN (1920) is an early version of VICTOR/VICTORIA as a young woman dressed as a man has her guardian fall in love with her. This movie is closer to the Hollywood Lubitsch.

Both films give Lubitsch the opportunity to score satirical points taking on such targets as the American nouveau riche, impoverished aristocrats, and male and female stereotypes. Both films also feature German silent comedienne Ossi Oswalda who looks like Mary Pickford but behaves like Mabel Normand. She is an absolute delight especially in MAN as she challenges the roles men and women are assigned by society. The pictures are crisp black and white transfers with incredibly witty intertitles which clearly show that Germans do have a sense of humor. The musical accompaniment by Aljoscha Zimmerman (PRINCESS) and Neil Brand (MAN) complements both films perfectly.

My only criticism of this disc is that the movies are too short (PRINCESS is 64 min while MAN is only 48) whereas the dramatic ones in this series seem to go on forever. Proof once again that comedy was Ernst Lubitsch's true forte. This DVD (along with THE WILDCAT which is positively outrageous) belongs on your shelf as a perfect example that slapstick can be sophisticated and that other countries beside America could produce excellent silent comic fare...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Ernst Lubitsch is probably best known to us Yanks as the director of "Ninotchka" and other movies where the humor often derived from possible innuendos (commonly called the Lubitsch touch). You might not have known that he started out in his native Germany directing comedies, including "Die Austernprinzessin" ("The Oyster Princess" in English).

This movie depicts a bored rich family where the dad decides to marry off the daughter, only for some unexpected things to happen as a result. I suspect Lubitsch viewed the United States as a land of decadent excess (the family has servants waiting on them hand-and-foot) and wanted to satirize it. How ironic that he later moved to the US and had a prominent career during Hollywood's golden age. Strange how things work out.

Anyway, it's a funny movie. Although it's available on Wikipedia, it doesn't have subtitles there, so you'll probably have to rent a physical copy.

When one considers the age of this film and Lubitsch's failure as a dramatic director, especially with his ponderous MADAME DU BARRY (PASSION) that same year, it's both a delight and a relief to experience him finding his comic niche and beginning to blossom with his delightful little "touches." It is crude as were most films of 1919, but it is full of invention, delightful absurdities and nonsense. It all adds up to a frothy comedy that is most enjoyable. The fox trot mania sequence is particularly endearing. Seek this one out.

This wildly satiric four-act film stars Victor Janson as Quaker, an extremely rich American whose every need has been catered for. He doesn't have to do a thing: servants carry him around from place to place, another servant serves him tea, while a third puts a cigar up to his lips on a silver salver. Desperate to get rid of his unruly daughter (Ossi Oswalda), he arranges for her to marry someone suitably rich and socially advantaged. However things do not turn out as planned ... DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (The Oyster Princess) offers a satiric view of Americanism at a time when the German economy was in a particularly weak state. The Quaker family are characterized as rich and wasteful; they fully deserve to become the victims of a comic trick. The film includes some characteristically zany sequences, notably a boxing-match involving Oswalda and a gaggle of female friends, who line up opposite one another and fight, proving, no doubt, that they are as strong (and as pig- headed) as their male counterparts. The film moves towards its expected happy ending, but not without offering some interesting suggestions as to how to contract an advantageous marriage without love even assuming any significance.