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Ninotchka (1939)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
1 February 1940 (Australia)
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Tagline:
M-G-M's Laugh Riot ! more
Plot:
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 4 Oscars.
Another 1 win
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NewsDesk:
(5 articles)
Shadows of Russia: Communism on TCM
(From Alt Film Guide. 3 November 2009, 11:28 PM, PST)
Oscar Nominees To Number 10 Next Year
(From Studio Briefing - Film News. 25 June 2009, 1:12 PM, PDT)
(From Alt Film Guide. 3 November 2009, 11:28 PM, PST)
Oscar Nominees To Number 10 Next Year
(From Studio Briefing - Film News. 25 June 2009, 1:12 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
NINOTCHKA Still Defies Her Critics
more (60 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| Greta Garbo | ... | Ninotchka | |
| Melvyn Douglas | ... | Leon | |
| Ina Claire | ... | Swana | |
| Bela Lugosi | ... | Razinin | |
| Sig Ruman | ... | Iranoff (as Sig Rumann) | |
| Felix Bressart | ... | Buljanoff | |
| Alexander Granach | ... | Kopalski | |
| Gregory Gaye | ... | Rakonin | |
| Rolfe Sedan | ... | Hotel Manager | |
| Edwin Maxwell | ... | Mercier | |
| Richard Carle | ... | Gaston |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
110 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:
USA:Passed (National Board of Review) |
Finland:(Banned) (1940) |
Finland:(Banned) (1964) |
Finland:K-15 (DVD) (2006) |
Finland:K-16 (1941) |
Finland:K-18 (self applied) (2006) |
Finland:S (cut) (1981) |
Germany:12 (DVD, 2006) |
USA:Approved (PCA #5494) |
New Zealand:PG |
Sweden:Btl |
Argentina:13 |
West Germany:6 |
Portugal:M/6 |
UK:U (video rating) |
UK:A (original rating)
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Curiously enough, this was the very movie Arnold Schwarzenegger studied when he was trying to find his character for Red Heat (1988). The exercise - emulate Greta Garbo - was recommended to him by his director Walter Hill.
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Goofs:
Continuity: When the Russian trio are drunk, the glasses fall off of the man in the middle, and in the next shot they are back on him
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Il compagno Don Camillo (1965)
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FAQ
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An expertly-played and presented comedy that continues to be dogged by detractors for the oddest reasons. Some feel NINOTCHKA suffers compared to Lubitsch's earlier work, finding it formulaic alongside 1933's TROUBLE IN PARADISE. (I hadn't known Lubitsch had been given 'do-what-thou-wilt' privileges from the Hays Office - I'd labored under the delusion he faced the same restrictions in content and tone every other moviemaker did in 1939.) Other nay-sayers decry the film's jabs at Soviet collectivism as 'dated' if not 'unenlightened'. (Huh? You mean show trials and forced starvation of kulaks were GOOD things that a truly witty screenplay would celebrate?) Still other kibitzers squawk over the casting, of all things! (While it IS fun to picture William Powell or Robert Montgomery in the role of Leon, the boulevardier, Melvyn Douglas was never better than he is here. If he has his spotty moments, it's in those scenes where he must swoon with ardor, reciting dialogue that rings a tad purple to the ear; it's quite possible Powell or Montgomery would have fared even worse reading those lines.) Okay, enough defense - now let's go to NINOTCHKA's numerous strengths. Garbo is magnificent; she has a real knack for comedy (her deadpan entrance is hilarious) yet, as always, is able to break your heart with a look, a word, a gesture. Her three 'stooges' (Sig Rumann, Alexander Granach & Felix Bressart) are broadly funny and genuinely endearing. Ina Claire is everything her legend always claimed she was - though her character is icily calculating, you can't hate any woman who can make dialogue bristle like this. Lubitsch is in complete command throughout; his staging and pacing of the proceedings, masterful in its seeming effortlessness. Even the storied Metro glitz shines in NINOTCHKA, right down to the brilliant artifice of Cedric Gibbons' art direction (the Eiffel Tower sets especially). Last but not least is the superb screenplay by (among other hands) the team of Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder. Wisely, their satiric darts are dipped in a curare leavened by wit and sentiment, and while they are thrown with accuracy, their sting is never such that the satire sinks into the mire of political ideology. NINOTCHKA, after all, is about the triumph of love over politics, and to those who feel trapped in the prevailing toilet-ethic of the Farrelly Brothers' blood-poisoning of modern comedy, represents a much-needed antidote. Inoculate yourself at your earliest opportunity.