Ninotchka
US (1939): Romance/Comedy
"Garbo Laughs!" The cool beauty's first comedy was a triumph and she never looked more beautiful or performed so gracefully. When the Soviet Union sends a committee (Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart and Alexander Granach) to Paris to exchange royal jewels for tractors, former Russian Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire) dispatches her lover and a former count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas) to liberate her diamonds. He successfully corrupts the comrades and the Soviets send in a secret weapon, the utterly humorless, businesslike Comrade Nina Ivanovna Yakushova (Garbo). Douglas goes to work showing her the delights of capitalist life and of love, and, though he loses the battle for the jewels, wins her heart. That is, indeed, Bela Lugosi charmingly playing the Soviet Commissar Razinin: one of his rare non-horror roles. (Sadly, it was Lugosi's last role in a big-budget "A" film.)
Directed with the "touch" by Ernst Lubitsch from a sparkling script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. Remade as Comrade X (1940) with Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr, and Iron Petticoat (1956) with Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope. Rouben Mamoulian directed the 1957 musical version, Silk Stockings, with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Selected for the National Film Registry. (amctv.com)
4 nominations
· Best Picture 1939: Sidney Franklin, producer (MGM)
· Actress 1939: Greta Garbo
· Writing (Screenplay) 1939: Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, Billy Wilder
· Writing (Original Story) 1939: Melchior Lengyel