Ninotchka (1939)

Tagline: M.G.M.’s laugh hit is here!

Ninotchka movie storyline. Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count.

Ninotchka (1939) was the long-awaited, classic romantic comedy, with a clever and witty script and the magnificent presence of actress Greta Garbo in her first official American comedy (in her next-to-last film). The charming film about clashing ideologies (Soviet communism vs. capitalism) begins with Garbo portrayed at first as a humorless, cold, curt, deadpan, and seriously-austere Russian envoy (in a parody of her own stiff onscreen image), who soon melts and is transformed and softened by Parisian love (and a persuasive playboy Count) into a frivolous, romantic figure and converted Communist.

The charming, sparkling screenplay that satirizes the Communist political system with sexual humor was written by Billy Wilder (before he became a director), Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. They returned to a slightly similar theme two years later in their screenplay for Ball of Fire (1941).

Other spin-offs of the Ninotchka theme include MGM’s Comrade X (1940) with Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr (in the Soviet Union), and The Iron Petticoat (1956) with Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope (in London). The storyline also became the foundation for the Broadway (Cole Porter) stage musical Silk Stockings – that was later filmed by director Rouben Mamoulian in a 1957 film version with Cyd Charisse in Garbo’s role opposite Fred Astaire.

Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
Starring: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi, Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart, Alexander Granach, Gregory Gaye, Edwin Maxwell, Richard Carle, Rolfe Sedan, Jody Gilbert, Bess Flowers
Screenplay by: Charles Brackett (screen play), Billy Wilder
Cinematography by: William H. Daniels
Film Editing by: Gene Ruggiero
Costume Design by: Adrian
Set Decoration by: Edwin B. Willis
Art Direction by: Cedric Gibbons
Music by: Werner R. Heymann
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release Date: November 9, 1939