Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

The daughter of a penniless marquis teaches her multi-millionaire fiancé a lesson, after learning he has had 7 previous wives.

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Charles Brackett (screenplay), Billy Wilder (screenplay),

Stars:

Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Claudette Colbert	...	Nicole De Loiselle
Gary Cooper	...	Michael Brandon
Edward Everett Horton	...	The Marquis De Loiselle
David Niven	...	Albert De Regnier
Elizabeth Patterson	...	Aunt Hedwige
Herman Bing	...	Monsieur Pepinard
Warren Hymer	...	Kid Mulligan
Franklin Pangborn	...	Assistant Hotel Manager
Armand Cortes	...	Assistant Hotel Manager
Rolfe Sedan	...	Floorwalker
Lawrence Grant	...	Professor Urganzeff
Lionel Pape	...	Monsieur Potin
Tyler Brooke	...	Clerk

Storyline

US multi-millionaire Michael Barndon marries his eight wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broken French Marquis. But she doesn't want to be only a number in the row of his ex-wives and starts her own strategy to "tame" him.

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Plot Keywords:

swimming | nervous breakdown | sanitarium | france | honeymoon | 

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Taglines:

He married in haste and repeated in pleasure!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

18 March 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Oitava Esposa de Barba-Azul

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on April 14, 1947 with Claudette Colbert reprising her film role.

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Goofs

When Nicole shuts the door to her part of the apartment to keep Michael out, you can hear her locking it. But throughout the film there is no keyhole or lock visible on either side of her door.

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Quotes

Nicole de Loiselle: I wish someone would tell you what I really think of you.

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Connections

Referenced in Hollywood Hist-o-Rama: Claudette Colbert (1962)

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Soundtracks

"Minuet"
(uncredited)
from "Quintetto per archi E major, Op.11-5 (G.275)"
Composed by Luigi Boccherini
In the score when Brandon sees the Louis XIV bathtub

User Reviews

The Pajama Game

For some perverse reason best known to themselves these IMDb boards seem reluctant to credit the great Billy Wilder as co-scriptwriter on at least two (this one and Ninotchka) of his early classics when any buff can detect the Wilder hand at work. As it happens this represented the first time he was teamed with Charles Brackett (who DOES get a credit) and it was a great start. One commenter has noted how satisfying it is to see these type of films in old-fashioned cinemas and I couldn't agree more. In Paris one of the smaller Revival houses shows in one of its salles a more or less continuous Lubitsch retrospective and I'm pleased to report that this played to a very appreciative audience right across the age spectrum though I doubt whether any were actually alive when it was first released in 1938. The famous Wilder schtick the meet-cute is particularly tasty here when millionaire but-careful-with-it Cooper attempts to buy half a set of pajamas in a department store on the Riviera and meets with sales resistance until Claudette Colbert turns up and agrees to buy the other half. The gag is milked even more when, having exhausted the chain of command at the store itself the manager places a call to the owner, who is in bed and leaves it to reveal that he, too, is only wearing the top half of pajamas. The film is full of sight-gags like this balanced with verbal wit which makes it just about perfect. Claudette Colbert is only terrific and gets great backing from Edward Everett Horton as her impoverished titled father. David Niven in fourth billing has some funny 'business' as does Franklin Pangborn and if Gary Cooper is not up to his role lacking as he does the verbal dexterity and sophisticated persona that Wilder scripts called for at this stage of his career well, you can't have everything and what you DO have is darned near perfect.