DIRECTOR: Ernst Lubitsch
PRODUCERS: Sidney Franklin, Ernst Lubitsch
PRODUCTION CO: MGM
SCREENPLAY: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch
PHOTOGRAPHY: William Daniels
EDITOR: Gene Ruggiero
MUSIC: Werner R Heymann
WITH: Greta Garbo (Ninotchka), Melvyn Douglas (Leon), Ina Claire (Swana), Bela Lugosi (Razinin), Sig Rumann (Iranoff), Felix Bressart (Buljanoff), Alexander Granach (Kopalski), Gregory Gaye (Rakonin), Rolfe Sedan (Hotel Manager), Edwin Maxwell (Mercier), Richard Carle (Gaston)

REVIEWS

“In Paris to sell off Grand Duchess Ina Claire’s state-confiscated jewels, bumbling Soviet emissaries Iranoff, Buljanoff, and Kopalski (Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart, and Alexander Granach) are just reveling in that room service (“You know what happens when you ring three times? A maid comes in!”) at the über-capitalistic Hotel Clarence, so the Kremlin sends off grim “envoy extraordinary” Greta Garbo (“The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians.”) to get them sweating borscht. But then Count Melvyn Douglas seduces her with champagne, an unintended pratfall, and the joie de chapeau. Garbo’s first comedy proved to be her greatest success, thanks to the fabled “Lubitsch touch” and a cynically satirical script by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Walter Reisch.”

– NY Film Forum

“Working from a cleverly barbed script written in part by Billy Wilder, director Ernst Lubitsch 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.”

– Park Circus

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Auckland   
Monday, 17 November, 6.15pm 

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