THE MERRY WIDOW d: Ernst Lubitsch
The Merry Widow (1934)
Direction: Ernst Lubitsch
Screenplay: Ernest Vajda and Samson Raphaelson; from Franz Lehár’s operetta
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Minna Gombell, Sterling Holloway
The Merry Widow is not one of Ernst Lubitsch’s most discussed films. Critics generally tend to focus on his early Paramount talkies, such as One Hour with You (co-directed by George Cukor) and Trouble in Paradise, and his later comedies Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be.
Yet, The Merry Widow is a superior musical, boasting sumptuous sets (production design by Cedric Gibbons), exquisite cinematography (courtesy of Oliver T. Marsh), a magnificently staged ballroom-dancing sequence, witty lines and situations (by Lubitsch collaborators Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda, from Franz Lehár’s operetta), [...]
by Andre Soares | April 14, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Cedric Gibbons, Classic Movies, Comedies, Ernst Lubitsch, Five-Star Movies, Five-Star Oscar Nominees, Franz Lehar, Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Musicals, Oscar 1934, Oscar Movies, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Romantic Movies, Samson Raphaelson, The Merry Widow, Una Merkel
Best Films – 1937
Robert Taylor, Greta Garbo in Camille
FILM
The Awful Truth
d, scr: Leo McCarey
Camille
d: George Cukor; scr: Frances Marion, James Hilton, Zoe Akins
The Hurricane
d: John Ford; scr: Dudley Nichols, Oliver H. P. Garrett
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
d: Richard Boleslawski; scr: Leon Gordon, Samson Raphaelson, Monckton Hoffe
Lost Horizon
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
Night Must Fall
d: Richard Thorpe; scr: John Van Druten
Les Perles de la couronne / Pearls of the Crown
d: Sacha Guitry, Christian-Jacque; scr: Sacha Guitry
The Prisoner of Zenda
d: John Cromwell; scr: Wells Root, John G. Balderstone, Donald Ogden Stewart
Quality Street
d: George Stevens; scr: Mortimer Offner, Allan Scott
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
d: David Hand; scr: Ted Sears, Richard Creedon and others
A Star Is Born
d: William A. Wellman; scr: Dorothy Parker, [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: A Star Is Born, Alan Campbell, Alan Mowbray, Alfred Newman, Alice Brady, Allan Scott, Anthony Veiller, Arletty, Bert Glennon, Best Films, Brian Aherne, Camille, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Christian-Jacque, Claire Trevor, Classic Movies, Colin Clive, Conquest, Constance Bennett, Cora Witherspoon, Dame May Whitty, David Hand, David Miller, Dead End, Dmitri Tiomkin, Donald Ogden Stewart, Dorothy Parker, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Dudley Nichols, Eddie Moran, Edward Ward, Eric Hatch, Erich von Stroheim, Ermete Zacconi, Ernest Vajda, Etienne Girardot, Eve Arden, Frances Marion, Frank Borzage, Frank Capra, Fredric March, George Cukor, George Stevens, Ginger Rogers, Grand Illusion, Gregg Toland, Gregory La Cava, Greta Garbo, Henry Daniell, Herbert Stothart, History Is Made at Night, Irene Dunne, Jack Jevne, James Hilton, James Whale, James Wong Howe, Janet Gaynor, Jean Gabin, Jeanette MacDonald, Joan Crawford, Joel McCrea, John Barrymore, John Cromwell, John Ford, John G. Balderstone, John Van Druten, Joseph Walker, Karl Freund, Katharine Hepburn, Kathleen Harrison, La Grande illusion, Lawrence Hazard, Leo McCarey, Leon Gordon, Les Perles de la couronne, Lillian Hellman, Lost Horizon, Lucille Ball, Luise Rainer, Mannequin, Maria Ouspenskaya, May Robson, Maytime, Merle Tottenham, Monckton Hoffe, Morrie Ryskind, Mortimer Offner, Neil Fitzgerald, Nelson Eddy, Night Must Fall, Noel Langley, Norman Z. McLeod, Oliver H. P. Garrett, Oliver T. Marsh, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Parnell, Pearls of the Crown, Penny Wisdom, Pierre Fresnay, Quality Street, Ray June, Richard Boleslawski, Richard Creedon, Richard Thorpe, Robert Carson, Robert Montgomery, Robert Riskin, Robert Taylor, Robert Z. Leonard, Ronald Colman, Roy Webb, Sacha Guitry, Samson Raphaelson, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Stage Door, Sylvia Sidney, Ted Sears, The Awful Truth, The Good Earth, The Great Garrick, The Hurricane, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, The Old Mill, The Prisoner of Zenda, Topper, True Confession, Wells Root, Wilfred Jackson, William A. Wellman, William H. Daniels, William Powell, William Wyler, Zoe Akins
Best Films – 1934
Norma Shearer in The Barretts of Wimpole Street
FILM
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Ernest Vajda, Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart
The Count of Monte Cristo
d: Rowland V. Lee; scr: Philip Dunne, Dan Totheroh, Rowland V. Lee
The Gay Divorcee
d: Mark Sandrich; scr: George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost, Edward Kaufman
Hide-out
d: W. S. Van Dyke; scr: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich
The Merry Widow
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Samson Raphaelson, Ernest Vajda
Fredric March, Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday
CHECK THESE OUT
Broadway Bill
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
Death Takes a Holiday
d: Mitchell Leisen; scr: Maxwell Anderson, Gladys Lehman
Gold
d: Karl Hartl; scr: Rolf E. Vanloo
Here Comes the Navy
d: Lloyd Bacon; scr: Earl Baldwin, Ben Markson
Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna
d: Willi Forst; scr: [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Albert Hackett, Alice White, Anna May Wong, Anton Walbrook, Best Films, Broadway Bill, Buster Crabbe, Charles Laughton, Classic Movies, Claudette Colbert, Constance Bennett, Easy to Love, Ernest Vajda, Ernst Lubitsch, Etienne Girardot, Fay Wray, Four Frightened People, Frances Goodrich, Frank Capra, Franz Planer, Genevieve Tobin, Ginger Rogers, Gold, Heinz Ruhman, Helen Lowell, Here Comes the Navy, Hide-out, Imitation of Life, James Cagney, Jean Arthur, Jeanette MacDonald, Karl Hartl, Lloyd Bacon, Louise Beavers, Marian Nixon, Mark Sandrich, Mary Astor, Mary Boland, Norma Shearer, Peter Lorre, Philip Dunne, Ramon Novarro, Ray June, Robert Montgomery, Rowland V. Lee, Samson Raphaelson, Sidney Franklin, The Affairs of Cellini, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Gay Divorcee, The Merry Widow, The Most Precious Thing in Life, Viva Villa!, W. S. Van Dyke, Wallace Beery, We're Rich Again
Best Films – 1929
Alexandra Schmidt in Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness
FILM
Eternal Love
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Hans Kräly; titles: H. H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Hans Kräly, Claudine West
The Love Parade
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Ernest Vajda, Guy Bolton
Lucky Star
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Sonya Levien; dialogue: John Hunter Booth; titles: H. H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker
Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück / Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness
d: Piel Jutzi; scr: Willy Döll, Jan Fethke
On With the Show
d: Alan Crosland; scr: Robert Lord
The Pagan
d: W. S. Van Dyke; scr: Dorothy Farnum; titles: John Howard Lawson
The River
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Philip Klein, Dwight Cummings
The Thirteenth Chair
d: Tod Browning; scr: Elliott Clawson
CHECK THESE OUT
The Divine Lady
d: Frank Lloyd; scr: Forrest Halsey, Agnes [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Alexandra Schmidt, Best Films, Charles Farrell, Classic Movies, Clyde de Vinna, Corinne Griffith, Ernst Lubitsch, Frank Borzage, Janet Gaynor, Jeanette MacDonald, Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness, Ramon Novarro, The Divine Lady, The Pagan, The River
Rouben Mamoulian Retrospective at Film Forum
"Mamoulian," a complete retrospective of Hollywood director Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987), one of cinema’s greatest stylists and innovators, will run at the Film Forum from Friday, September 7 through Tuesday, September 18.
As per the Film Forum’s press release, Mamoulian was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to an Armenian family. He worked at the Moscow Art Theater while attending university, and, following a chance meeting with industrialist/philanthropist George Eastman (founder of the Kodak film company) he moved to Rochester, New York, to direct plays.
Shortly thereafter he was on Broadway, directing Dorothy and Dubose Heyward’s Porgy, which became the basis for George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, a musical that Mamoulian would also direct. [See Porgy and Bess screening in New York.]
That initial [...]
by Andre Soares | August 22, 2007
| Subscribe / Syndicate
Tags: Applause, Arthur Miller, Becky Sharp, Bess Meredyth, Blood and Sand, Classic Movies, Ernst Lubitsch, Film Festivals, Film Forum, Greta Garbo, Jeanette MacDonald, Linda Darnell, Love Me Tonight, Maurice Chevalier, Miriam Hopkins, Porgy and Bess, Pre-Code Hollywood, Queen Christina, Ray Rennahan, Rouben Mamoulian, The Mark of Zorro, Tyrone Power
