Ninotchka

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Ninotchka (B). With this DVD, I finally finished The Garbo Collection, and on the whole it really was a bit of a chore. (Okay, I confess that I skipped the silent films and went straight to the talkies.) To my great and pleasant surprise, the collection ends on a high note--a rather witty romantic comedy, instead of Garbo's usual tragedy/melodrama. In the late 1930's, the Soviet Union is badly strapped for cash. Three inept Party members arrive in Paris to sell some jewels stolen from the aristocracy during the Revolution. To their surprise, the former owner of the jewels, the Grand Duchess Swana, lives in Paris, finds out what's happening, and slaps a lawsuit on them with the aid of her debonair gentleman friend, Count Leon. The Kremlin sends Special Envoy Nina Ivanova "Ninotchka" Yakushova (Garbo) to straighten out the mess. She and Leon meet cute (without knowing they are about to clash over the jewels), and the usual Garbo theme of the conflict between love and duty is off and running. But this time it is played mostly for laughs, and mostly quite effectively. The director wisely makes Garbo an utterly humorless and doctrinaire comrade, providing a stark and amusing contrast to the glib, superficial, but good-natured Leon:

Ninotchka: Must you flirt?
Leon: I don't have to, but I find it natural.
Ninotchka: Suppress it.

And Garbo is, of course, luminously beautiful. In short, Ninotchka is worth watching. Check it out some time.