Ninotchka

Plot

Three Russians, Iranov (Sig Ruman), Buljanov (Felix Bressart), and Kopalsky (Alexander Granach), are in Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Upon arrival, they meet Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas), on a mission from the Russian Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire), who wants to retrieve her jewelry before it is sold. He corrupts them and talks them into staying in Paris. The Soviet Union then sends Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova (Greta Garbo), a special envoy whose goal is to go through with the jewelry sale and bring back the three men. Rigid and stern at first, she slowly becomes seduced by the West and the Count, who falls in love with her.

The three Russians also accommodate themselves to capitalism, but the last joke of the film is that one of them carries a sign protesting that the other two are unfair to him.

Cast

Release

Premiered in 1939 in the United States, the movie was released a month after the outbreak of World War II in Europe, where it became a great success. It was, however, banned in the Soviet Union and its satellites. Despite that, it went on to make $2,279,000 worldwide.

In a play on the famous "Garbo Talks!" ad campaign used for her "talkie" debut in Anna Christie (1930), Ninotchka was marketed with the catchphrase "Garbo Laughs!", commenting on Garbo's serious and melancholy image and implying she had not laughed or played comedy before. However, her canon reveals this not to be the case. Although all her previous films were dramatic, Garbo had occasions to laugh in several of them. In Queen Christina (1933), she disguises herself as a man and jokes with her co-star John Gilbert and others throughout the first half of the picture. In Camille (1936), she feigns exuberant laughter in a dramatic scene with actor Henry Daniell.

Critical response

When the film was first released, The New York Times film critic Frank S. Nugent praised it, writing, "The comedy, through Mr. Douglas's debonair performance and those of Ina Claire as the duchess and Sig Rumann, Felix Bressart and Alexander Grannach as the unholy three emissaries; through Mr. Lubitsch's facile direction; and through the cleverly written script of Walter Reisch, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, has come off brilliantly. Stalin, we repeat, won't like it; but, unless your tastes hew too closely to the party line, we think you will, immensely."

More recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz discussed the humor of Ninotchka, writing, "The sly political jokes include Garbo saying: 'The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians' and there are a few well-placed jokes mocking the failed Soviet Five-Year-Plan. The most noteworthy Lubitsch touch scene revolves around a stag feast in a luxury hotel ordered by capitalist Douglas for the three grateful comrade emissaries, who can't believe their good fortune."

Revival

An attempt to revive the film later during World War II was suppressed on the grounds that the Soviets were then allies of the West.

Legacy

In 1955, a Broadway musical Silk Stockings, written by Cole Porter based on the 1939 story and script, starring Hildegard Neff and Don Ameche opened. The musical was adapted as a 1957 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Actor George Tobias, who played the commissar in Silk Stockings, also had a small role in Ninotchka as the Russian official who gets punched by Leon for refusing him a visa. The films Comrade X (1940), starring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr and The Iron Petticoat (1956), starring Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn, both borrow heavily from Ninotchka.

In 1990, Ninotchka was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was also included on Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies.

The film is recognized by the American Film Institute in the AFI 100 Years... series in the following lists:

Awards

Ninotchka received four Academy Award nominations, those for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Original Story, and Best Screenplay.

Origins

Ninotchka is based on a three-sentence story idea by Melchior Lengyel that made its debut at a poolside conference in 1937, when a suitable comedy vehicle for Garbo was being sought: “Russian girl saturated with Bolshevist ideals goes to fearful, capitalistic, monopolistic Paris. She meets romance and has an uproarious good time. Capitalism not so bad, after all.”