Ninotchka
| Ninotchka | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ernst Lubitsch |
| Produced by | Ernst Lubitsch Sidney Franklin |
| Written by |
Melchior Lengyel Charles Brackett Billy Wilder Walter Reisch |
| Starring |
Greta Garbo Melvyn Douglas Ina Claire |
| Music by | Werner R. Heymann |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | Gene Ruggiero |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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October 6, 1939 |
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Running time
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110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,365,000 (est.) |
| Box office | $2.3 million |
Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It is written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full comedy, and her penultimate film. It is one of the first American movies which, under the cover of a satirical, light romance, depicted the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin as being rigid and gray, in this instance comparing it with the free and sunny Parisian society of pre-war years.
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.
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.
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