Wolfgang Zilzer Movies

"Garbo Laughs!" declared the ads for Ninotchka. In the face of dwindling foreign revenues, MGM decided to put Greta Garbo, a bigger draw in Europe than the US, in a box-office-savvy comedy, engaging the services of master farceur Ernst Lubitsch to direct. The film opens in Paris during the aftermath of the Russian revolution. A trio of Russian delegates (Sig Rumann, Felix Bressart, and Alexander Granach) are sent to Paris to sell the Imperial Jewels for ready cash. Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire), who once owned the jewels, sends her boyfriend Count Leon (Melvyn Douglas) to retrieve the diamonds, and he turns the trio into full-fledged capitalists, wining and dining them all through Paris. Moscow then dispatches the humorless, doggedly loyal Comrade Ninotchka (Garbo) to retrieve both the prodigal Soviets and the gems. When Leon turns his charm on Ninotchka, she regards him coldly, informing him that love is merely a "chemical reaction." Even his kisses fail to weaken her resolve. Leon finally wins her over by taking an accidental fall in a restaurant, whereupon Ninotchka laughs for the first time in her life. She goes on a shopping spree and gets drunk, while Leon begins falling in love with her in earnest. As a bonus to the frothy script, by Billy Wilder and others, and its surefire star power, Ninotchka features what is perhaps Bela Lugosi's most likeable and relaxed performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Case Van Geldern is an excellent detective thriller with some genuinely surprising plot turns. Co-adapted by Hans Hyan from his own novel, the story concerns a lawyer who is accused of murdering his wife. The only person who knows the truth is a former client of the lawyer, a career criminal currently serving a lengthy prison term. Out of sympathy for the lawyer, the crook breaks out of jail just long enough to prove his old friend's innocence and track down the genuine killer. Reviewers in 1932 enjoyed Case Van Geldern but felt that the film's song numbers were extraneous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the stage comedy by Charles W. Bell and Mark Swan (previously filmed in 1920), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath is a curious mixture of all that was good and everything that was bad in Buster Keaton's talkie features. Keaton plays Reginald Irving, a dimwitted bill-poster who finds himself the pawn in a scheme cooked up by wealthy Jeffrey Haywood (Reginald Denny). It seems that Jeffrey will not be permitted to marry Virginia Embrey (Sally Eilers) until a suitable husband is found for Virginia's older sister Angelica (Dorothy Christy). Since Angelica has rejected all the available suitors, Jeffrey schemes to offer Reginald as an eligible mate. First, however, he has to transform our dopey hero into a gentleman -- and a great lover. Somehow or other, poor Reginald innocently ends up in a compromising situation involving vampish Polly Hathaway (Charlotte Greenwood) and the very married Nita Leslie (Joan Peers) at a posh no-tell hotel. Keaton is permitted a few choice pantomimic moments in Parlor Bedroom and Bath, notably his scenes with the aggressive Charlotte Greenwood and a spectacular sight gag "borrowed" from his 1920 silent classic One Week. On the whole, however, Keaton is lost in a sea of unfunny dialogue and tired farcical situations -- a not untypical pitfall of his MGM talkies. Long unavailable due to legal complications, Parlor, Bedroom and Bath can be purchased from any of the public-domain video companies proliferating in the U.S. (Incidentally, that baronial "upstate New York" mansion in the film's early scenes was actually Buster Keaton's Beverly Hills home) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jacques Feyder's 1928 adaptation of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin was also released in Germany as Du Sollst Nicht Ehe Brechen and in the U.S. as Shadows of Fear. Produced in Berlin, with Gina Manes in the title role, the film is regarded by many cineastes as Feyder's best effort. The director perfectly captured the bourgeois stuffiness of the Raquin household and the unspoken passions of the faithless Therese, who despises her small-minded husband and wishes him dead. In concert with her lover, Therese arranges for Raquin to "accidentally" drown in a boating accident. Subsequently, Therese marries her paramour, but their union is forever blighted by the memory of their horrible deed. Upon stumbling onto the truth, Therese's mother is shocked into muteness, but the couple knows that she knows. And in the end, it is the mother who is the sole and silent witness to the couple's downfall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hanns Heinz Ewers' grim science-fiction novel Alraune has already been filmed twice when this version was assembled in 1928. In another of his "mad doctor" roles, Paul Wegener plays Professor Brinken, sociopathic scientist who combines the genes of an executed murderer with those of a prostitute. The result is a beautiful young woman named Alraune (Brigitte Helm), who is incapable of feeling any real emotions -- least of all guilt or regret. Upon attaining adulthood, Alraune sets about to seduce and destroy every male who crosses her path. Ultimately, Professor Brinken is hoist on his own petard when he falls hopelessly in love with Alraune himself. Alraune was remade in 1930, with Brigitte Helm repeating her role, and again in 1951, with Hildegarde Knef as the "heroine" and Erich von Stroheim as her misguided mentor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Primanerliebe was the first of director Robert Land's films to gain a release in the United States. The title translates as Student's Love, which also neatly sums up the plotline. Hero Rolf is a boarding-school student who falls in love with Ellen, the headmaster's daughter. The school is a particularly strict and severe one, with at least one student driven to suicide by the tyranny of the teachers. Rolf gets himself in dutch with the authorities by penning a fervent anti-war essay. Expelled from school, Rolf is averse to returning home, knowing full well that his sadistic uncle will punish him mercilessly. Instead, he follows the lead of his classmate by contemplating suicide, pausing long enough to bid farewell to Ellen. Upon calling on the girl, he finds that she is being manhandled by a rapacious opera singer. Drawing the gun he'd intended to use on himself, Rolf shoots the would-be rapist, whereupon the headmaster forgives the boy for his inflammatory essay and allows him to return to school -- with the implication that Rolf is welcome to call upon Ellen any time he likes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide