That Uncertain Feeling

#28 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. Lubitsch, after the critically positive but less than stellar financial receptions of his previous few films, moved into independent production along with business partner Sol Lesser to film a remake of one of Lubitsch's earlier films (Kiss Me Again, which is lost). Having been a producer on …

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The Shop Around the Corner

#2 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. This is so warm, gentle, touching, and funny that it almost feels like it comes from a different filmmaker who made the much bawdier early sound films like The Smiling Lieutenant and The Merry Widow. It took a couple of films, but with both Ninotchka and The…

Ninotchka

#4 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. There really did seem to be growing pains with Ernst Lubitsch as he entered the early days of the reign of the Hays Office. Angel was a drama that really skirted the line that the Hays Office had its eye on, working in a genre that Lubitsch…

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife

#27 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. There's a lot of commentary about why this first collaboration between director Ernst Lubitsch and the writers Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder doesn't quite work, and a lot of it has to do with the casting of Gary Cooper as a millionaire who keeps marrying women that…

Angel

#18 in my ranking of Ernst Lubitsch's filmography. Having his last film, The Merry Widow, cut down heavily in the middle of the release process by the Hays Office, Ernst Lubitsch toned things way down with Angel, a Marlene Dietrich vehicle that still involves a former prostitute and a brothel. It's just way toned down…