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Ernst Lubitsch
[1892-1947]

writer-director Ernst Lubitsch [1892-1947]          short profile

movies of Ernst Lubitsch

works about Ernst Lubitsch

friends & family

links


"There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one."
— Ernst Lubitsch

Billy Wilder had a sign over his office door, which read "How would Lubitsch do it?".


     B I O
     h e r e

Ernst Lubitsch entry at Wikipedia
Ernst Lubitsch credits [1912-1948] at Internet Movie Database


star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame  won Honorary Oscar in 1947     Ernst Lubitsch received 3 Oscar nominations [1930-1944]
and an Honorary Oscar® in 1947

He also received
a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame



Movies  of  Ernst  Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch Filmography at Wikipedia
Ernst Lubitsch credits [1912-1948] at Internet Movie Database
browse Ernst Lubitsch on DVD at Amazon

"The Lubitsch Touch: A Critical Study" [Dutton c1968] by Herman G. Weinberg

Lubitsch in Berlin DVD box set  "Lubitsch In Berlin" [2007]
Kino Video b&w DVD set [12/2007] 5 disks for $71.99
includes "I Don't Want To Be A Man" [1918 silent]; "The Doll" [1918 silent]; "The Oyster Princess" [1919 silent]; "Anna Boleyn" [1920 silent] starring Emil Jannings; "Sumurun" [1920 silent] starring Ernst Lubitsch & Pola Negri; "The Wildcat" [1921 silent] starring Pola Negri; and the documentary "Ernst Lubitsch In Berlin" [2006]
Lubitsch Musicals DVD box set  "Lubitsch Musicals" [2008]
Criterion/Eclipse b&w DVD set [2/2008] 4 disks for $59.95
includes "The Love Parade" [1929] starring Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald; "Monte Carlo" [1930] starring Jack Buchanan & Jeanette MacDonald; "The Smiling Lieutenant" [1931] starring Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert & Miriam Hopkins; and "One Hour With You" [1932] starring Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald

·            ·

Lubitsch's Films in Germany

"The Doll" [1918 silent]

"Sumurun" [1920 silent] starring Ernst Lubitsch & Pola Negri

"Anna Bolyn" [1921 silent] /B000JLQPWM/

"Das Weib des Pharao (The Loves of Pharaoh)"
[E.F.A. USA Feb 1922, Germany March 1922; restoration Sept 2011]
The Loves of Pharaoh / Wife of Pharoah 1922 silent by Ernst Lubitsch  Complete print long thought lost; restored in 2005 to 100 minutes, including original tinting, from German, Russian & Italian elements by Alpha Omega Digital GmbHThe King of Ethiopia offers his daughter to the Egyptian Pharoah in hope of a peaceful alliance; but Pharoah Amenes prefers the Ethiopian slave girl Theonis; the humiliated Ethiopians start a war and Amenes is killed in battle; several endings exist, including a happy romantic ending for American audiences • Directed by Ernst Lubitsch; written by Norbert Falk & Hanns Kräly; starring Emil Jannings, Dagny Servaes, Harry Liedtke, Paul Wegener, Paul Biensfeldt, Friedrich Kühne, Albert Bassermann, Lyda Salmonova
DVD/Blu-ray not available ? • full credits at IMDbmovie entry at Wikipedia
official movie site (with German-language trailer)
German-language restoration info (with videos)

"Die Flamme" aka "Flamman" silent feature
[P.A.G.U. Germany Sept 1923, USA July 1924]
Italian? poster for   A prostitute marries a naive composer, her former pimp is lurking around, and when the couple runs out of rent money ... One reel and some fragments totaling 43 minutes exist, rarely seen; a full print is said to exist in Russia. Lubitsch was eager to be hired in America, so he filmed a second (happier) ending for the American market • Directed by Ernst Lubitsch; screenplay by Hanns Kräly, based on a Hans Müller-Einigen stageplay; starring Pola Negri, Hermann Thimig & Alfred Abel
full credits at IMDb
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Lubitsch's  Films  in  America

"Rosita" [1923 silent feature] starring Mary Pickford

"Lady Windemere's Fan" [1925 silent feature] with Ronald Colman & May McAvoy

"The Student Prince In Old Heidelberg" [M.G.M. 1927 silent feature]

"The Patriot" [1928 silent] with Emil Jannings {lost film}

"The Love Parade" [1929] starring Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald

"Monte Carlo" [1930] starring Jack Buchanan & Jeanette MacDonald

"The Smiling Lieutenant" [1931] starring Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert & Miriam Hopkins

"One Hour With You" [1932] starring Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald

"Trouble In Paradise" [1932]

"Angel" [Paramount Oct 1937]
Angel movie by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Marlene Dietrich  A British couple take separate vacations and she falls in love with another man • Produced & directed by Ernst Lubitsch; based on a stageplay by Melchior Lengyel; starring Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Melvyn Douglas, Edward Everett Horton, Laura Hope Crews & Herbert Mundin
Region 1 DVD not available; Universal b&w VHS [1998] out of prodn/used
11"x17" poster from Amazon for $14.99
full credits at IMDbmovie entry at Wikipedia

"Ninotchka" [M.G.M. Oct 1939]
Ninotchka 1939 romantic comedy movie directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Greta Garbo & Melvyn Douglas  Three Russian agents are sent to Paris to sell jewelry confiscated during the Revolution; a former Russian noblewoman enlists a British count to retreive her family's jewelry, the three agents are seduced by Western decadence, and stiff agent Ninotchka Ivanoff is sent to bring the jewels and agents back • Co-produced & directed by Ernst Lubitsch; written by Melchior Lengyel, Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder & Walter Reisch; starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi, Sig Ruman & Felix Bressart; Oscar nomi- nations for Best Picture, Best Original Story, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Garbo); listed on National Film Registry (1990); listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (5/2005)
Warner Home Video b&w DVD [9/2005] for $5.79
M.G.M. Video b&w VHS [1/99] out of prodn/many used
11"x17" square 'Garbo laughs!' poster from Amazon for $14.99
full credits at IMDbmovie entry at Wikipedia
Ninotchka critical text edited by Richard J. Anobile  
"Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka Starring Greta Garbo" script & critical text [1975]
Edited by Richard J. Anobile

Flare/Avon pb [4/75] out of print/used
Universe/Darien House 11x8¾ hardcover [4/75] out of print/many used

"The Shop Around The Corner" [Loew's/M.G.M. Jan 1940]
Shop Around The Corner movie by Ernst Lubitsch, starring James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan  Two employees at a gift shop in Budapest who intensely dislike one another are unaware that they are falling in love by mail as each other's anonymous pen pal; remade as "In The Good Old Summertime" [1949 musical feature] with Van Johnson & Judy Garland, 1963 Broadway musical "She Loves Me", BBC-TV movie "She Loves Me" [1978], and the hit movie "You've Got Mail" [1998] starring Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan • Produced & directed by Ernst Lubitsch; screenplay by Samson Raphaelson based on the 1936 stageplay "Parfumerie" by Miklós László; starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan & Joseph Schildkraut; listed on National Film Registry (1999); listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (5/2005)
Warner Home Video b&w DVD [10/2002] out of prodn/many used
Warner Home Video b&w VHS [1/2000] out of prodn/many used
M.G.M./U.A. b&w VHS [12/98] out of prodn/used
full credits at IMDbmovie entry at Wikipedia

"That Uncertain Feeling" [1941]

"To Be or Not To Be" [1942]

"Cluny Brown" [1946]

"That Lady in Ermine" [Fox 1948]


Works  About  Ernst  Lubitsch

"Lubitsch" German-language biography [Bucher 1984] by Hans-Helmut Prinzler, Edited by Enno Patalas
http://www.amazon.com/Lubitsch-German-Ernst/dp/3765804371/

Romantic Comedy from Lubitsch to Sturges  "Romantic Comedy In Hollywood: From Lubitsch To Sturges" [1987]
by James Harvey

covers masters of the genre Ernst Lubitsch [1892-1947], Frank Capra [1897-1991], George Stevens [1904-75], Howard Hawks [1896-1977] & Preston Sturges [1898-1959], and many actors
Da Capo Press 9x6½ pb [1/2001] for $26.00
Knopf hardcover [12/87] out of print/used

"Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter In Paradise" [] by Scott Eyman 0801865581

documentary "Ernst Lubitsch In Berlin" [2006]

http://www.amazon.com/Ernst-Lubitsch-Bernard-Narboni-Eisenschitz/dp/2866424514/

http://www.amazon.com/Cinema-Ernst-Lubitsch-Leland-Poague/dp/0498019586/

http://www.amazon.com/Ernst-Lubitschs-American-Comedy-William/dp/0231056818/

Ethics & Social Criticism in Hollywood Films book by Nora Henry  "Ethics and Social Criticism In The Hollywood Films of Erich von Stroheim, Ernst Lubitsch, and Billy Wilder" [2000] by Nora Henry
Praeger Publng 9½x6½ hardcover [10/2000] for $125.00

see also Magic Lantern's Erich von Stroheim [1885-1957] Page
see also Magic Lantern's Billy Wilder [1906-2002] Page

Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood book by Kristin Thompson  "Herr Lubitsch Goes To Hollywood: German and American Film After World War I" [2005] by Kristin Thompson
The Great War disrupted the world film market and United States studios overtook the studios in wartorn Europe; Germany banned all imported movies, so their industry thrived. When the ban was lifted, writer-director Ernst Lubitsch quickly absorbed all the advances in style and technique made in Hollywood; by 1923, he was making silent feature films in America.
Amsterdam Univ Press 9½x6¼ pb [2/2006] for $33.25
Amsterdam Univ Press 9½x6½ hardcover [3/2005] for $82.75

Divided World / Hollywood & Emigre Directors book by Nick Smedley  "A Divided World: Hollywood Cinema and Emigre Directors In The Era of Roosevelt and Hitler, 1933-1948" [2011] by Nick Smedley
Examines some of the important programs of the New Deal and the subsequent response of the film community, and also compares and contrasts the major works of three European directors – Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch & Billy Wilder – with the products of mainstream Hollywood.
Intellect Ltd 9x6¾ pb [2/2011] for $40.00


Friends  &  Family

Otto Preminger [] completed or co-directed several later Lubitsch films

L i n k s

Ernst Lubitsch entry at Wikipedia
Ernst Lubitsch credits [1912-1948] at Internet Movie Database
browse Ernst Lubitsch on DVD at Amazon

Scott's "Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch" fansite
Ernst Lubitsch Award {Verleihung des Ernst-Lubitsch-Preises} of Berlin, Germany [est. 1958]
Cinema of Germany Page at Magic Lantern


here on the Ernst Lubitsch [1892-1947] Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

top of pageshort profilemovies of Ernst Lubitschworks about Ernst Lubitschfriends & familylinks

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