Ninotchka

Garbo Talks! proclaimed ads when beloved silent star Greta Garbo debuted in talkies. Nine years and 12 classic screen dramas later, the gifted movie legend was ready for another change. Garbo Laughs! cheered the publicity for Ninotchka, her first comedy, a frothy tale of a dour Russian envoy sublimating her womanhood for Soviet brotherhood until she falls for a suave Parisian man-about-town (Melvyn Douglas). Working from a cleverly barbed script co-written by Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot), director Ernst Lubitsch (Heaven Can Wait) knew better than anyone how to marry refinement with sublime wit. “At least twice a day the most dignified human being is ridiculous,” he explained about his acclaimed “Lubitsch Touch.” That’s how we see Garbo’s lovestruck Ninotchka: serenely dignified yet endearingly ridiculous. Garbo laughs. So will you! (Dir. by Ernst Lubitsch, 1939, USA, 110 mins., Not Rated)