Ninotchka (1939)
Ninotchka (1939)
One of my favorite films an Ernst Lubitsch directed comedy featuring Greta Garbo (Garbo laughs!) Melvyn Douglas and some great supporting characters (particularly the three men from Russia: Sig Ruman Felix Bressart and Alexander Granach) like Bela Lugosi as the Commissar. Garbo the picture the story (the only Academy recognition Melchior Lengyel would receive) and its Charles Brackett-Walter Reich-Billy Wilder screenplay (their first Academy recognition) were all Oscar nominated with each losing to Gone With the Wind (1939). Added to the National Film Registry in 1990. #52 on AFI’s 100 Funniest Movies list. #40 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Love Stories list.
Garbo plays the title character a cold Russian woman sent to Paris to retrieve three wayward countrymen who’ve been enjoying the city’s spoils in lieu of completing their assignment. Douglas is their friend who helps to melt her ice before all four Russians are recalled home by Lugosi. It is in the melting and Garbo’s transformation from dry communist to one who notices the beauty of a frivolous French hat that makes this essential comedy so funny. Of course once back in Russia Douglas tries to find a way to communicate and/or see his lovely Ninotchka.
