“Have you ever had diplomatic relations with a woman?”
At this point if Lubitsch doesn’t become one of my 5 favorite directors I’ll be shocked. I knew I would love this as it’s an adaptation of one of my favorite operettas by Franz Lehar, but I didn’t think I’d adore it this much. Some of it is the beautifully lavish MGM production, but it’s really all in the incredible visual humor and sexual innuendo that Lubitsch plays with throughout. The salami, the belt, the suggestive use of doors, and so many more little moments throughout had me constantly laughing — all without a single word. That’s the Lubitsch touch creating movie magic. That’s not to say the script isn’t also great. There were loads of lines I found absolutely hilarious like the ones I quoted above. This is one of the rare musical pictures that doesn’t let up when the music stops. That mostly made up for the arias and ensembles being rather sparse and not memorably choreographed.
This scene which Billy Wilder raved about is in Merry Widow, which I was super happy to find out as I didn’t know that going in.
Musicals Ranked
“Have you ever had diplomatic relations with a woman?”
At this point if Lubitsch doesn’t become one of my 5 favorite directors I’ll be shocked. I knew I would love this as it’s an adaptation of one of my favorite operettas by Franz Lehar, but I didn’t think I’d adore it this much. Some of it is the beautifully lavish MGM production, but it’s really all in the incredible visual humor and sexual innuendo that Lubitsch plays with throughout. The salami, the belt, the suggestive use of doors, and so many more little moments throughout had me constantly laughing — all without a single word. That’s the Lubitsch touch creating movie magic. That’s not to say the script isn’t also great. There were loads of lines I found absolutely hilarious like the ones I quoted above. This is one of the rare musical pictures that doesn’t let up when the music stops. That mostly made up for the arias and ensembles being rather sparse and not memorably choreographed.
This scene which Billy Wilder raved about is in Merry Widow, which I was super happy to find out as I didn’t know that going in.
Musicals Ranked
