Madame DuBarry (or, Passion)

Another romantic historical film in the line of Carmen, Ernst Lubitsch adapted Memoirs d'un medicin by Alexandre Dumas and told the story of Louis XV's mistress, Madame DuBarry, bringing along his regular female star Pola Negri to lead the film. It's a story with a lot of moving parts and a lot of characters, but…

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The Oyster Princess

#15 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. Much more in line with the urbane farce that was The Doll than the attempts at vaudeville that were the Sally Pinkus/Meyer films, The Oyster Princess is another delightful little entry in Ernst Lubitsch's early career that might not quite make the most sense but keeps its…

Meyer from Berlin

#32 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. I don't think Ernst Lubitsch's comic sensibilities lent themselves that well towards vaudeville and slapstick. His was a more urbane and witty comedy that wasn't the best fit with things like physical comedy. His recurring character of Sally Meyer (formerly Pinkus from Shoe Palace Pinkus) was a…

The Doll

#17 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. The opening shot of Ernst Lubitsch's The Doll announces wordlessly that it's going to be...different. A man, Lubitsch himself, comes out and sets up a house and yard with paper on a table, which we then zoom in on and two characters exit the house to start…

Carmen (or, Gypsy Blood)

#29 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. Adapted from the later parts of the novella of the same name by Prosper Merimee, Carmen is Ernst Lubitsch's third surviving feature, and he was still firmly in the part of his career where his voice was muffled by studio needs. There was room for him to…