That Lady in Ermine
The statement “this is a Lubitsch” does not necessarily mean that it’s a good film. Despite my undeniable love for Lubitsch, who would easily be my favorite director if all his films were like “The Shop around the Corner”, I did not actually like all of his films. “Die Bergkatze” was amusing but rather silly, “Die Ehe im Kreise” is a little bland, and this film is in a similar warm-hearted style like “Heaven can wait” but worse. I do not know what it is (the choices of colors and costumes perhaps?) but Lubitsch in color always looks so strangely dated. Black and white definitely suits him better.
I don’t think anybody ever mentions this film apart from the fact that it was Lubitsch’s last, and I am not surprised. Despite the fact that two great directors worked on this, the master himself and Preminger (who is pretty amazing as well), the silly plot doesn’t quite allow a great direction anyways. It feels like just anybody could have turned this into an acceptable film, and that is basically what “That Lady in Ermine” is – acceptable. It’s a musical (that’s a minus), but it also has a few funny scenes (despite the negative-sounding quantifier “a few” that is a plus). The film definitely picks up when the story turned into a full-blown, triangle story. I especially enjoyed the dream sequence in which Angelina turns all manly and does her little leg dance.
Hollywood likes its silly stories, and the same are worked over and over again. While nowadays, people are into producing bad sequels, back in the day you just made the same film again. On the one hand, we have “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Orpheus” and the like, classics which are reinterpreted over and over, but on the other hand, something like this silly operetta story is being remade again and again as well, first as a silent film, then as a 1930’s talkie and then by Lubitsch. The other two are lost, but from the synopsis it seems that the countess ends up with the count at the end of the original story.
Maybe, when Lubitsch grew older, he kept parts of his boyishness, yet at the same time his sense of esthetics turned into the one of an old man. The style of the film is beautiful (Angelina’s white/golden dress is dashing) but oh wow it’s so painfully cliché.