Review of Ninotchka (1939) by Varad M — 09 Feb 2010

"They don't make 'em like that anymore." And why not? Well, one reason might be because Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, and Greta Garbo are dead.

Ostensibly a tale of the clash between capitalism and communism, East and West, it is at heart a love story. A hilariously enjoyable love story anchored by Garbo as Soviet emissary Nina Ivanovna Yakushova, sent to Paris to sell jewels confiscated from a former Russian noble, and Melvyn Douglas as Count Leon, the lover of the jewels' former owner, who sets out to sabotage the sale by any means necessary. The means are to use the charms and temptations of the West to corrupt the first embassy made of three hapless commissars.

Yakushova, who arrives by announcing to her comrades, when they ask her how things are in Russia, that the trials are going well and that there will now be "fewer but better Russians," is immune to such venality. Leon is immediately smitten with his new foe, but not even a visit to his apartment and a series of passionate kisses can make her yield; she is inflexible. How to win her heart? With laughter, and Leon proceeds to try to win Ninotchka with a series of completely botched jokes, including one about two Scotsmen that bombs utterly. Ninotchka still hasn't laughed in her life. But then Leon takes a bad step, falls on his rear, and the whole restaurant is in stiches - and so is Ninotchka. Suddenly those silly bourgeois hats don't seem so silly. Maybe there is more to life than the party after all.

There must be, for Garbo and comrades are compelled to return to Russia. Once there, they wistfully reminisce about Paris gingerly, fearful that the wrong ear will hear the wrong word. There is a happy ending, of course. It's message is perhaps as utopian as that of the communism the film, however subtly, rejects. That message is that love will conquer all, including borders and ideologies, that even totalitarianism cannot snuff out all humanity. Hearts will defeat minds. A realistic message? Perhaps not. But surely a far preferable one to the alternative. And when that message is presented in such a delightful manner, one would have to the cold heart of a Nina Ivanovna Yakushova to disagree.