Sunday, November 19, 2006
DEFECTOR
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Ernst Lubitsch'
Written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, this great romantic comedy stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.
I saw the musical version, Silk Stockings, in its tryouts. Cole Porter music; his last show.
It had Gretchen Wyler and Don Ameche (don't laugh he was great—I can still hear him sing).
Then the musical became a film which we will see with the S's.
So, I have come full circle.
It is a great story and it still reads, at least for those who remember the Soviet Union and all its quirks.
The back bone of it is really the three Marx Brothers types who create problems for Ninotchka that require her presence. They are a great comic relief in what could be somewhat tedious territory; a wan and sober apparatchik and a emigré noble trying to get it on.
I will give it a high 5 out of Netflix5.
The restoration is brilliant.
