Ninotchka (1939)

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Sig Ruman, Alexander Granach, Felix Bressart, Ina Claire, Richard Carle, Béla Lugosi, Gregory Gaye, Edwin Maxwell.

Breezy but unpolished romance with satirical jabs; debonair socialite Douglas gradually charms stern Russian envoy Garbo in Paris, neither of them aware at first that they are opponents in a seized jewelry sale. The best moments and lines can almost all be found in the first hour, often up to Lubitsch’s high standards, but quality dwindles a bit after Garbo’s Ninotchka loosens up and the artificiality of the plot requirements bleeds through the droll banter—the gears that turn to produce a happy ending practically groan in the final reel. Ruman, Granach and Bressart are good fun as comrades grateful to enjoy the pleasures of the capitalist world; the digs at Stalin and communism still amuse beneath a layer of dust. Marketed with the tagline, “Garbo laughs,” though it takes a while for the rigid Russkie to do so; but heck, they find a way to make Lenin laugh onscreen as well.

73/100