Ninotchka (1939)

Ninotchka is an American comedy romance film first released in 1939, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.  The film stars Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire and Bela Lugosi.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


The Soviet Union is in desperate need of hard cash to buy tractors and other farm equipment from the West.  For that reason, three loyal communists, Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski, are sent to Paris to sell a collection of jewels that were seized during the Russian Revolution.  When the former owner of the jewels, the Grand Duchess Swana, learns of this, she asks her friend, Léon, to prevent the sale and recover the jewels.  In response, the Soviets despatch an envoy, Ninotchka Ivanoff, to take charge of a legal case to decide who owns the jewels.  Shortly after Ninotchka’s arrival in Paris, she meets, quite by chance, Léon, who proceeds to show her the sights of the city.  Without knowing each other’s identity, they fall in love...

Greta Garbo’s penultimate film is certainly one of her most enjoyable, a spirited romantic comedy from the master of the genre, Ernst Lubitsch.  Significantly, this was Garbo’s first comedic role, which is something the film’s distributors made great play of.  "Garbo laughs" was the slogan the film’s posters proudly boasted, a reference to the similar "Garbo talks" slogan that was used when the actress made her first appearance in a talkie.

She may laugh (and she makes us laugh with her), but Garbo has lost none of the allure and mystique which made her an icon of the silent era, and her austere beauty is put to good use.  When she first appears, as the diehard communist who speaks and acts like a machine, you can almost see the water vapour in the air turning to ice at it meets her cold, expressionless face.   A few minutes in the company of the debonair Melvyn Douglas is all it takes, however, to transform her into a warm and attractive romantic heroine, proving the old adage that the most passionate hearts are those that beat beneath several feet of permafrost.

Lubitsch’s direction on this, one of his best films, is impeccable, although his work is greatly assisted by an excellent screenplay, on which another master of farce, Billy Wilder, had a significant input.  The film works both as an effervescent romantic comedy and also as a wonderfully effective satire on communism, showing that within every good Soviet there’s a live-life-to-the-full capitalist waiting to get out and start swigging all the champagne he can lay his hands on.

Whilst Garbo and Douglas capture most of our attention, much of the film’s humour comes from its supporting cast.  In what almost resembles a Marx brothers tribute act, Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart and Alexander Granach are utterly hilarious as the trio of Soviets who succumb to the charms of Paris with the ease of a mouse finding itself in a cheese factory.  Bela Lugosi also appears briefly in the film; at the time, he was a major star, famous for his portrayal of Dracula in Universal’s early horror films.

Ninotchka was a great commercial success when it was first released in 1939, and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Garbo).  The success of this film was not repeated in Garbo’s next foray in the rom-com genre, George Cukor’s Two-Faced Woman (1941), which marked the unexpected end of her acting career.

© James Travers 2008

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