February 7, 2017 (XXXIV:2) Ernst Lubitsch, NINOTCHKA (1939, 110 min) National Film Registry, 1990 Academy Awards, USA 1940 Nominated for: Best Picture Best Actress in a Leading Role: Greta Garbo Best Writing, Original Story: Melchior Lengyel Best Writing, Screenplay: Charles Brackett ,Walter Reisch, Billy Wilder Directed by Ernst Lubitsch Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Walter Reisch (screenplay), Melchior Lengyel (based on the original story by) Produced by Sidney Franklin, Ernst Lubitsch Music Werner R. Heymann Cinematography William H. Daniels Film Editing Gene Ruggiero Art Direction Cedric Gibbons family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at Set Decoration Edwin B. Willis night. In 1911 he joined the Deutsches Theater of famous Costume Design Adrian director/producer/impresario Max Reinhardt, and was able to move up to leading acting roles in a short time. To gain extra money, he took a side job as a handyman while learning silent film acting at Cast Berlin's Bioscope film studios. The next year he launched his own Greta Garbo…Nina Ivanovna Yakushova aka Ninotchka film career by appearing in a series of comedies showcasing Melvyn Douglas…Count Leon d'Algout traditional ethnic Jewish slice-of-life fare. Finding great success in Ina Claire…Grand Duchess Swana these character roles, Lubitsch turned to broader comedy, then Bela Lugosi…Commissar Razinin beginning in 1914 started writing and directing his own films. His Sig Ruman…Comrade Iranoff breakthrough film came in 1918 with The Eyes of the Mummy Felix Bressart…Comrade Buljanoff (1918), a tragedy starring future Hollywood star Pola Negri. Also Alexander Granach…Comrade Kopalski that year he made Carmen (1918), again with Negri, a film that was Gregory Gaye…Count Alexis Rakonin commercially successful on the international level. His work Rolfe Sedan…Hotel Manager already showed his genius for catching the eye as well as the ear in Edwin Maxwell…Mercier not only comedy but historical drama. His success in Europe Richard Carle…Gaston brought him to the shores of America to promote The Loves of Ernst Lubitsch…Himself - Director in Trailer (uncredited) Pharaoh (1922) and he became acquainted with the thriving US film industry. He soon returned to Europe, but came back to the US ERNST LUBITSCH (b. January 28, 1892, Berlin, Germany—d. for good to direct new friend and influential star Mary Pickford in November 30, 1947, Hollywood, California) started off life as an her first American hit, Rosita (1923). The Marriage Circle (1924) actor before becoming a director in the Weimar era, quickly began Lubitsch's unprecedented run of sophisticated films that establishing himself as a promising filmmaker. At age 16 he mirrored the American scene (though always relocated to foreign or decided to leave school and pursue a career on the stage. He had to imaginary lands) and all its skewed panorama of the human compromise with his father and keep the account books for the condition. There was a mix of pioneering musical films and some Lubitsch—NINOTCHKA—2 drama also through the 1930s. Due to the success of those films, witty, sardonic dialogue. The culmination of their efforts was Paramount made him its production chief in 1935 and by 1938 he Sunset Blvd. (1950), which won an Academy Award for Best signed a three-year contract with 20th Century-Fox. He then moved Writing, Story and Screenplay. Following this, the team split up at to MGM where he directed Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in the peak of their success, each going their separate ways. Brackett Ninotchka (1939), a fast-paced comedy of "decadent" Westerners moved on to work under contract at 20th Century Fox for the next meeting Soviet "comrades" who were seeking more of life than eight years. With Walter Reisch, he co-wrote the screenplays for their mother country could—or would—offer. During WWII he Niagara (1953) and Titanic (1953), winning his third Oscar for the directed one of his most controversial films, To Be or Not to Be latter. He also produced the superior western Garden of Evil (1954), (1942), a razor-sharp tour de force in smart, precise dialog, staging the historical drama The Virgin Queen (1955) and the lavish and story. In 1943 Lubitsch had a massive heart attack after having musical The King and I (1956). Brackett retired due to illness after signed a producer/director's contract with 20th Century-Fox earlier producing State Fair (1962). He has 46 screenwriting titles, some of that year, he completed Heaven Can Wait (1943). Due to his failing which are Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Robert health, his continued efforts in film were severely stymied. In late Montgomery Presents (1956), The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing 1944 Otto Preminger, another disciple of Reinhardt's Viennese (1955), Lux Video Theatre (1954-1955), The Mating Season (1951), theater work, took over the direction of A Royal Scandal (1945), A Foreign Affair (1948), The Bishop's Wife (1947), To Each His with Lubitsch credited as nominal producer. March of 1947, the Own (1946), The Lost Weekend (1945), Hold Back the Dawn year of his passing, brought a special Academy Award (he was (1941), Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), and Little Women (1933). nominated three times, but never won) for his contribution to He was also producer for 27 films. motion pictures. The director is most known for his famous—if slightly intangible—“Lubitsch touch” use of a subtle humor or suggestion to connote information to his audience. At his funeral, two of his fellow directorial émigrés from Germany put his epitaph succinctly as they left: Billy Wilder noted, "No more Lubitsch" to which William Wyler answered, "Worse than that—no more Lubitsch films." Some of his additional 76 directed films include That Lady in Ermine (1948), Cluny Brown (1946), That Uncertain Feeling (1941), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), The Merry Widow (1934), Design for Living (1933), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Broken Lullaby (1932), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), The Patriot (1928), The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), Lady Windermere's Fan (1925), Der gemischte Frauenchor (1916) and Fräulein Seifenschaum (1914). He also has 43 acting credits, as well as 29 writer credits. His written work includes To Be or Not to Be (1983, story - uncredited), Here Is Germany (1945, Documentary, story preparation), To Be or Not to Be (1942, original story - uncredited), The Merry Widow (1934, contributing writer - uncredited), If I Had a Million (1932), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931, uncredited), Romeo und Julia im Schnee (1920, screenplay & story), I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918, writer), When Four Do the Same (1917, Short), Zucker und Zimmt (1915) and Fräulein Seifenschaum (1914). CHARLES BRACKETT (b. November 26, 1892, Saratoga Springs, New York—d. March 9, 1969, Los Angeles, California) followed in his attorney-father's footsteps and graduated with a law degree from Harvard University in 1920. He practiced law for several years, before commencing work as drama critic for The New Yorker (1925-29), in addition to submitting short stories to The Saturday Evening Post. In 1932, Brackett left for Hollywood as a screenwriter where he was signed by Paramount primarily on the BILLY WILDER (b. June 22, 1906, Sucha, Galicia, Austria- strength of his novel Week-End. Brackett remained at the studio Hungary [now Sucha Beskidzka, Malopolskie, Poland]—d. March until 1950, doubling up as producer from 1945. During his tenure at 27, 2002 in Los Angeles, California) Originally planned on Paramount, Brackett became part of one of the most celebrated becoming a lawyer but abandoned that career in favor of working as screenwriting partnerships in the motion picture business, alongside a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, which paid poorly but gave Billy Wilder. They were eventually dubbed by Life Magazine as him a great amount of experience interviewing such as Richard "the happiest couple in Hollywood". Despite having very different Strauss and Sigmund Freud. In fact, he is quoted as saying after personalities and arguing incessantly—Wilder being the more seeing Freud’s couch for the first time, “It was a very tiny little extroverted and cynical, while Bracket was, to quote Gloria thing. All his theories were based on the analysis of very short Swanson, “quieter, more refined”—their collaboration endured until people!” In 1926 he worked as an interpreter for jazz band leader 1951, spanning fourteen motion pictures. Many of their most Paul Whiteman on a European tour which ended in Berlin. There he popular hits, such as Ninotchka (1939), Ball of Fire (1941) and The became a freelance journalist mixing with the show business set and Lost Weekend (1945), were noted for their intricate scripting and becoming friendly with Marlene Dietrich a then small part actress. Lubitsch—NINOTCHKA—3 His friendship helped get him introduced to prominent figures in the (1974), Avanti! (1972), The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), growing German film industry resulting in him being hired as a The Fortune Cookie (1966), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Irma la Douce ghost writer writing scripts for established writers who didn't have (1963), One, Two, Three (1961), The Apartment (1960), Some Like time to meet their contractual obligations. Wilder wrote scripts for It Hot (1959), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Love in the many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Afternoon (1957), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), The Seven Year Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause Itch (1955), Sabrina (1954), Stalag 17 (1953), Ace in the Hole problems, so he emigrated to Paris, then the US. Although he spoke (1951), Sunset Blvd.(1950), A Foreign Affair (1948), The Emperor no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a fast Waltz (1948), The Lost Weekend (1945), Death Mills (1945), learner, and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with whom he Double Indemnity (1944), Five Graves to Cairo (1943), 1942 The shared an apartment), he was able to break into American films.