The Merry Widow
Screening on Film
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
With Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, George Barbier.
US, 1934, 35mm, black & white, 99 min.
Print source: Warner Bros.
With Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, George Barbier.
US, 1934, 35mm, black & white, 99 min.
Print source: Warner Bros.
The new film version of Franz Lehár’s operetta reunited Lubitsch one last time with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald for what would also be his final musical. The director was somewhat influenced by the grand scale of Busby Berkeley, though Lubitsch uses his dance sequences—as he does the sharp tonal changes throughout the film—to express characters’ otherwise uncommunicated feelings. Squeezed in right before the Production Code went into full effect, not everything in the film is so veiled. The carefree promiscuity of playboy Danilo provides a scandalous wealth of blatant transgression until it is challenged by the beautiful widow Sonia, who happens to be the wealthiest woman in Marshovia. With the fate of the small, nearly bankrupt country suddenly dependent on their unlikely union, the private and the public become entirely entangled, until their relationship is virtually on trial. Lubitsch’s comic rendering may be worlds away from von Stroheim’s darker, more eccentric take, but the startling symbolism within the “happy” ending remains outrageously ominous. Happily-ever-after has been sacrificed for a greater good, as well as the increasingly conservative morality of Hollywood.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
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Trouble in Paradise
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Ninotchka
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1939
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Shoe Palace Pinkus / Meyer From Berlin
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff RapsisScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Madame DuBarry
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
That Uncertain Feeling
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1941
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Love Parade
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1929
Screening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Doll
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Kohlhiesel's Daughters
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1920
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff RapsisScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Lady Windermere's Fan
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1925
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
If I Had a Million
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, et al, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Broken Lullaby AKA The Man I Killed
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Design For Living
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1933
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
One Hour With You
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
So This is Paris
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1926
Live Musical AccompanimentScreening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
When I Was Dead / The Pride of the Firm
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Carmen AKA Gypsy Blood
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1918
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Heaven Can Wait
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1943
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Smiling Lieutenant
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1931
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Monte Carlo
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1930
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Eyes of the Mummy
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1938
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Eternal Love
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1929
Screening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Three Women
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1924
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Anna Boleyn
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1920
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff RapsisScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Shop Around the Corner
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1940
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Sumurun
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
To Be or Not To Be
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1942
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Oyster Princess
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Merry Widow
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1934
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Wildcat AKA The Mountain Cat
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1921
Live Musical Accompaniment by Andrew SimpsonScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1928
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Ninotchka
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1939
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Cluny Brown
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1946
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Angel
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1937
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Cluny Brown
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1946
Screening on Film
