Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

cstotlar-1 If there is a trace of Oscar Strauss in the music, it escapes me. This is a Maurice Chevalier vehicle at most and shows him at his most - not "best" or "worst". The sound-action-music combo is labored here with examples of people talking, visually, covered up with music, and other instances of singing where the camera is glued the the actors' mouths. The train-set "trains" are clumsy and transparently fake and the "rat-a-tat" leitmotif (for all the ooh-la-las) pushed well beyond the point. This is the Maurice Chevalier show starring Maurice Chevalier with an occasional bow from the great Lubitsch (no irony here) but that's all. It's an early talkie and we are constantly reminded that it is.

chaos-rampant I am grateful for Lubitsch. I always am when I watch a good film, but the feeling is somehow of a different magnitude when the encounter suggests a consistently bright and sensitive soul. He must have been having a blast composing these things, sculpting the contours of little jokes, rubbing as frivolously as he could against the edges of sexual protocol. Much has been made of his Touch, though it seems an elusive thing: reading up on various critics' proposed theories of it, you couldn't get two to agree—even his collaborator Billy Wilder, when interviewed about it, seems a bit mystified. I have my own notion that I'm working on, but hashing that out is in the future.Yes, you will have a great time with this, quite possibly the raunchier of all the precode musicals I have been visiting as of late. The farce is about finding a million small ways to suggest sex, some of them bawdy, usually elegant—breakfast as sex talk, a bugle's rousing ra-tat-tat as arousal, 'Jazz up your Lingerie', and the baffling scene that closes this, where the virginal princess, instructed on seduction by her sexual rival, transforms into a wild flapper—smoking, banging a jazz tune at the piano—to get the capricious lothario she lusts after into bed, all this amounting more or less to the happy end of a successful romance.One more thing. The engine that drives this cinematic world into motion, I'm sure most viewers would not think twice of it, but I'm in the habit of noting interesting cases. In this case, I believe (though it is too early to tell) it exemplifies on the deepest level the whole cosmology of Lubitsch.On a first level, it is simple enough; a misunderstood smile.As the misunderstanding is the most commonplace trope, this isn't particularly useful or revealing. This is what happens a little later though. The dashing lieutenant is instructed—as per the emperor's wishes —not to propose, not even speak to the smitten princess. This is presented by the adjutant who makes the case not as a cut-and- dry decision, but as the product of much political deliberation and digress, itself an impish joke on imperial etiquette. So far so good. In the following scene, however, he receives a congratulatory phonecall on his marriage. And in yet the next scene, he is officially congratulated in person by the emperor, the same one who forbade him to propose.Yes, we can reason that somewhere along the line, for whatever reasons, the decision was reverted, that is beside the point. The point is that lesser filmmakers would explain. And yet it makes sense seemingly illogical as we have it.So how about this for a blueprint? Improvisation and whimsical digress, and in the quantum level of narrative, you have spontaneous uncertainty, which is the most universal of attributes. And in the world of the film, this is going to have far-reaching imports, like deciding the course of empires.Something to meditate upon.

mkawagoye-550-258890 It was with pleasure that I watched this movie for the second time this year. Having been an early fan of C. Colbert from "The Sign of the Cross" and "Cleopatra", I was surprised to discover that she also had a better than average singing voice. The popular 'While Hearts Are Singing' is still a song I remember 80 years later. Considering the story line, it was singularly appropriate. Admittedly, O.Straus cannot be placed in the same class as J. Strauss nor R. Strauss but how many Mozarts and Beethovens are there? Hopefully other 'discoveries' will bring us forgotten gems such as this. Could there be a copy of Jan Kiepura's "Be Mine Tonight" out there somewhere?

mark.waltz An army lieutenant (Maurice Chevalier) finds love in two completely different places-a cabaret and the palace. In this fictional European country (with a funny name that the country folk can't even pronounce!), the king's daughter (Miriam Hopkins) falls in love with the King's bodyguard (Chevalier), unaware that he is very much in love with the violin player (Claudette Colbert) of a popular girl's orchestra. But when you're the princess, you can get what you want, and she pleads with papa to get permission from the Holy Roman Emperor to marry the lieutenant, whether he likes it or not."Hi, Emp!", the King gleefully says to the Big Man of Europe (after the pope...), getting permission, and stunning Chevaliere into silence and Colbert into tears. But this edict won't make Chevalier consummate the wedding night, so Hopkinsfinds herself playing checkers with papa after Chevalier tells her that you never wink at a husband, only a lover or mistress. "Schnitzel to you!", he adds to the king, heading right back to Colbert.This is motion picture operetta at its best with a pleasant musical score, rhythmic dialog, and enough sexual innuendo to fill up legal documents by the volumes had it been made after the code. Paramount filled several movies with fictional European countries, so when Groucho Marx became dictator of Fredonia in 1933's "Duck Soup", he had a lot of material to spoof. Hopkins transforms from an impish brat into sexy vamp, getting rid of those Princess Leia like rolls on the side of her head when Colbert (in her second film with Chevalier) is charmingly alluring. And when Colbert get together to sing a duet about lingerie, it turns into magical movie heaven.