Angel (1937).

Review #2008: Angel.

Cast: 

Marlene Dietrich (Maria, Lady Barker / "Angel"), Herbert Marshall (Sir Frederick Barker), Melvyn Douglas (Anthony 'Tony' Halton), Edward Everett Horton (Graham), Ernest Cossart (Chris Wilton), Laura Hope Crews (the Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna), Herbert Mundin (Mr. Greenwood), and Dennie Moore (Emma MacGillicuddy Wilton) Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (#1026 - The Shop Around the Corner, #1358 - To Be or Not to Be, #1881 - The Love Parade)

Review: 

Ernst Lubitsch actually once was a production manager for Paramount Pictures, you know. Yes, when it comes to mainstream prominent names of directors running a studio, there really is just one name to consider, and Lubitsch didn't even last that long in the position. In fact, he did not last long after at Paramount after 1936, with this being his penultimate film there. Since 1928, he had made most (not all) of his features there, which went from The Patriot to Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. But not all directors can stay in one place, even if they do provide a touch of interest. Angel is also important in the discussion of Dietrich, because it was her last film with Paramount under contract, with her next feature not being until Destry Rides Again in 1939. The film was based on a play called Angyal by Melchoir Lengyel. Guy Bolton and Russell Medcraft wrote the film while Samson Raphaelson and Frederick Lonsdale wrote the screenplay. It was the only time she starred in a Lubitsch film, and she was paired with Marshall, who had starred in Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932), one of a handful of films he would do as a leading man (which included a good deal of romances). 

The touch that Lubitsch provides to making a quality light drama is to keep one's interest firmly upon these sophisticated people and the mishaps that makes romance one to amuse with rather than be afraid of it. It runs at a careful pace of 91 minutes that shows the dynamic that comes together in a love triangle that is seemingly more than two people and one's workload. It is the movie that shows just how much sense one is not going to make when it comes to the nature of men and women, with the latter being particularly apparent. Dietrich plays things with the solemn dignity required in a role that has her cherished in different ways when paired with Marshall or Douglas, which makes sense when you see the dynamics of marriage being contrasted with a night of odd adventure. She is vulnerable even in her grace that seems different her time spent with Josef von Sternberg when it comes to cherishment. Marshall (who appears last among the triangle, intentionally presented as such when it comes to a man presented as a "League of Nations" man) does pretty well as the middleman of romance, a gentleman that clearly has affection for his wife, but it is evident to see how much of his affection for his wife runs in tandem with his affection of his work, which works to the levels needed when it comes to the inevitable climax. Douglas fills the key piece of the triangle as the obsessive man struck between his connection with an old friend and the connection that he believes he has with someone that seems apt to be called "Angel". Simply put, it is charming to see one have a helpless obsession when it comes to what we know is coming with the inevitable confrontation over just what is going to happen with the choice of a woman. There is some comic relief when it comes to Horton and Crews, since one cannot have romance without onlookers present to see from afar that are just living in their element, which is probably best stated in a scene where a few butlers are taking back plates of food meant to be ate for a meal between the love triangle only to find that two of them did not eat a bite. By the time one has gotten to the end of the film in its lovely presentation of the inevitable of irrational decisions made in the name of passions, you have found that your time has been spent quite well, one where the director and the cast are working hand-in-hand in making sophisticated entertainment. It should make a good time for those who are interested in Lubitsch or Dietrich, that much is clear.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

The Love Parade.

Review #1881: The Love Parade.

Cast: 

Maurice Chevalier (Count Alfred Renard), Jeanette MacDonald (Queen Louise), Lupino Lane (Jacques), Lillian Roth (Lulu), Eugene Pallette (Minister of War), E. H. Calvert (Sylvanian Ambassador), Edgar Norton (Master of Ceremonies), and Lionel Belmore (Prime Minister) Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (#1026 - The Shop Around the Corner and #1358 - To Be or Not to Be)

Review: 

"I made sometimes pictures which were not up to my standard, but then it can only be said about a mediocrity that all his works live up to his standard."

So, here we are with an example of film directors honing their craft with the dawn of sound in features. Ernst Lubitsch had been a director after honing his craft in the early 1910s as an actor in his native Germany, doing so with a mix of comedies and historical dramas before notice abroad led him to leave for Hollywood in 1922. He directed for various studios over the next two decades, and one wouldn't be surprised that his first part-sound film in The Patriot (1928) earned him an Academy Award nomination. The Love Parade, which premiered in late 1929 but not released to the public until January of 1930, is his first true sound feature. Go figure that his first sound film featured two singers for actors. Chevalier became a performer in his native France since the turn of the 20th century, with only a stint as a prisoner of war in World War I serving to interrupt his career (apparently his two years as a POW is where he learned English). He did appear in a number of films before this one, which included Innocents of Paris (1929), but it is this film that made him a key name, although he had to be convinced by Lubitsch that his voice (a working-class one) would fit the style that Lubitsch wanted with a fantasy-land European sounding country. As for MacDonald, she was in the business of performances since she was a child, complete with touring in kid shows before becoming a teenager and soon doing stints on Broadway. Strangely enough, the way to her becoming involved with this film came from a screen test for a film she wasn't allowed to do (due to contract), since Lubitsch happened to look through old screen tests and found the one he wanted with her, with this being her debut feature. MacDonald and Chevalier would do a couple of films together (most notably with The Merry Widow (1934), which had Lubitsch as director).

The film is based on the play The Prince Consort, a French play written by Jules Chancel and Leon Xanrof (which in turn had been a Broadway play in 1905). Guy Bolton and Ernest Vadja wrote the screenplay for the film. Lubitsch made a musical different from the early approaches of doing a sound movie that folks saw with The Broadway Melody (1929) in having songs performed in front of a static camera. In other words: sometimes to tell a story, you tell it with a song, complete with a solid supporting cast to back them up in amusement. When it comes to good-natured escapism, you can't go wrong with something like this, one that makes for a solid achievement of entertainment. It does so with gusto of energy from its director that gives its main stars things to do beyond just being vehicles to sing, as their chemistry together proves quite refreshing. It is a romance of assessment, one where the wooing isn't as important as the process of finding out just what love really means to people living in a royal place where everyone seems to have their noses in business. Chevalier makes a quality rogue to follow with from the very first sequence we see and hear of him in the 107-minute feature, which involves him dealing with a scorned lady and even sees him address the audience for a moment (singing won't come for quite a while, and he isn't even the first one to sing) before fake weapons get used for playful fun. He has a sly charisma that seemed exotic for audiences in need of someone like him in a time for new sounds and charms. Of course, MacDonald isn't to be lost in the shuffle, because her self-assured charm and collected confidence make a worthy match, one who can sing as well as she can delegate with him in graceful charm. Being a royal is one thing, being a happy royal is another, one might say. Lane and the others (including the distinct voice of Pallette) make worthwhile contributions in chuckles along with a bit of singing that make it a splendid romp across romance and the lines between being just someone's spouse and being in love. In that sense, it works out quite well, complete with having Lubitsch find ways to get around early sound quirks, complete with directing two couples to sing the same song in alternative places by having two sets built (orchestra between them off camera) that he could then piece together with editing. As a whole, it may move within the expectations that encapsulate romantic musicals, but it still manages to move with resourceful timing and pace from cast and crew that worked beyond the dreams of what one thought sound movies could be that still seems engaging today. For that, Lubitsch seems just as interesting to look back now more than ever.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Review #1358: To Be or Not to Be.

Cast: 
Carole Lombard (Maria Tura), Jack Benny (Joseph Tura), Robert Stack (Lt. Stanislav Sobinski), Felix Bressart (Greenberg), Lionel Atwill (Rawich), Stanley Ridges (Professor Alexander Siletsky), Sig Ruman (Col. Ehrhardt), Tom Dugan (Bronski), and Charles Halton (Dobosh) Directed and Produced by Ernst Lubitsch (#1026 - The Shop Around the Corner)

Review: 
Satire can be a curious thing. If you do it right, one will appreciate the humor and irony for years on end, regardless of how much time has passed (such as Gulliver's Travels). One would expect a war satire to come from brilliant directors (such as Charlie Chaplin with The Great Dictator the previous year), so it only makes sense for Ernst Lubitsch to make one as well. The German-born director had started as an actor in 1913. Although he appeared in roughly 30 films over the next seven years, he gradually shifted his attention to directing, making his debut with Shoe Palace Pinkus (1916). He made numerous movies in his native Germany with actors such as Pola Negri before leaving to Hollywood for good in 1922. He made films in numerous genres, ranging from comedy to bio-dramas to musicals, and he received an Honorary Academy Award in 1946, one year before his death from a heart attack. The story was done by Melchior Lengyel (who had co-written Ninotchka) while the screenplay was done by Edwin Justus Mayer (with un-credited work done by Lubitsch). Naturally, one would expect a star or two to headline the film, and one can't go wrong with Lombard and Benny. Lombard had started her career in 1921 (with a main debut in Marriage in Transit in 1925),  having small roles in films for Fox Film and Mack Sennett's short films before reaching her first high point with Twentieth Century (1934). It was the first of numerous screwball comedies that she became known for over the next few years. Tragically, this was to be her last film. She was killed in a plane crash after a war bond rally on January 16, 1942 (roughly a month before the film's release). Benny came into this film because Lubitsch wrote the film directly for him. He had originally done vaudeville for his violin playing before eventually deciding to do comedy with his act. In 1929, he had signed a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer and had his debut with The Hollywood Revue of 1929. While he made numerous appearances in film over the next few years, he became more well-known for his radio program, which ran from 1932 to 1955. 

The film is a wonderful one, dark and witty with its pursuit of making ridicule of a serious situation like the Nazis, in a time where World War II was in its third year and America had just entered the fight. There was a mixed reception among audiences and critics of the time, where even Benny's father initially was disgusted with the sight of his son in a Nazi uniform before being convinced otherwise (where he promptly saw it again and again). It is a keen movie with plenty of sharp observations and facial situations that rewards the viewer time and time again. The movie has a tremendous sense of timing, balancing comedy and drama with such deftness, which is helped with a prime screwball pairing through Lombard and Benny, who are both inspiring to watch either together or with others. The film doesn't repeat itself with tiring gags, knowing when to do something without needing to be prodded into it, where one could make a comedy-less version of the same basic story without finding trouble. Stack (who was reportedly terrified going into this role) does just fine with keeping up with Lombard and Benny with careful demeanor. The other actors pull off an inspired front in retaining interest, with Ruman doing the most well with bombast. It certainly is a timeless one to last among other comedies, and it even inspired a remake in 1983. The film moves with a dashing pace of 99 minutes, never seeming to wear itself out at any time with making a capable dark comedy that also serves as a romance and thriller with plenty to make light of with daring ambition and an especially capable director and stars at hand to make things shine in the dark. One can't go wrong with a Lubitsch picture, and this is no exception.

Next Review: The Invisible Man (2020).

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

The Shop Around the Corner.

Review #1026: The Shop Around the Corner.

Cast: 
Margaret Sullavan (Klara Novak), James Stewart (Alfred Kralik), Frank Morgan (Hugo Matuschek), Joseph Schildkraut (Ferencz Vadas), Sara Haden (Flora Kaczek), Felix Bressart (Pirovitch), William Tracy (Pepi Katona), Inez Courtney (Ilona Novotny), and Charles Halton (Detective) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

Review: 
Honestly, I did not expect to watch this film before I saw it, although I will admit that it has lingered on my mind for quite a while. I especially did not expect to do it after doing a film that took elements (along with the play I will mention later on in this review), which was You've Got Mail (#1020), reviewed by me just eleven days ago. That movie was okay, not being anything too special but also not too cynical. Viewers of both films will notice the scenes that share some (but not too much) similarity with each other, although the structure and characters both differ. As mentioned before, The Shop Around the Corner is based off the play Parfumerie by Miklós László, a Hungarian play that premiered at the Pest Theatre in Budapest in 1937. I had forgotten to mention that the film was later turned into a musical named In the Good Old Summertime (released in 1949), which featured Judy Garland and Van Johnson. In fact the play was adapted into a musical itself in 1963 with She Loves Me, so clearly there has been quite a bit of ground covered with this material.

In any case, this is a fine fun time, and it is the work of Sullavan and Stewart that make all of that possible, as they just have an interesting amount of scenes with each other that gives the movie charm. Stewart always seems to leave a fine impression of sincerity and no-nonsense that certainly resonates well even today, and that reflects especially well in a movie in which he bickers with Sullavan's character. She also does a fine job at making her character credible along with one that we can also root for without any doubt. The heart of the film is in the characters that are showcased to us, and the fact that they become people we care about in some way, such as Schildkraut and his kindly nature that zings well with Stewart and Morgan at times. Speaking of which, Morgan also does a tremendous job in the film as well, balancing the line between insecure and bossy in the best way possible, never becoming one that we can't find interesting to watch. The rest of the cast also do fine, with Schildkraut and Tracy standing out due to how they play their roles neatly. The film goes along the lines you might expect, but it's the way that it uses charm along with some enjoyable atmosphere that makes it a clear winner. It doesn't smother you with sentimentality, but it also doesn't skimp on being romantic along with amusing, being smart with what it wants in its 99 minute run-time. It's a movie that is inclusive in its fun, not sealing itself for only a select few. It's an easy pick to recommend, particularly if one is in the spirit for things such as this.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.