Title:
Ninotchka (1939)
URL: http://www.imdb.com/Title?Ninotchka%20%281939%29
Aka Titles:
Ninotschka (1948) (Germany)
Tag Line:
Garbo laughs
The picture that kids the commissars!
(Don't Pronounce It - See It!)
Production Company:
MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (aka MGM-UA) [us]
Loew's Incorporated [us]
Distributor:
Loew's, Inc. [us]
MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (aka MGM-UA) [us]
Country of Production:
USA
Running Time:
USA:110
Germany:100
Filmed In:
Black and White
Sound Mix:
Western Electric Sound System
Technical Info:
Film Length: 3068 m
Negative Format: 35 mm
Process: Spherical
Print Format: 35 mm
Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1
Release Date:
Germany:1948
USA:6 October 1939 (premiere) (Hollywood, California)
USA:3 November 1939
Sweden:13 March 1940
Language:
English
Summary:
Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe
large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the
three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the
suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out
what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no nonsense woman
who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the
Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the
jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count. But can one count
on a count?
Summary by:
Dale O'Connor
Summary:
Soviet emissaries Buljanoff, Iranoff, and Kopalski no sooner arrive
in Paris to sell some jewelry for the government, than soft
capitalist ways begin to corrupt them. Grand Duchess Swana, former
owner of the jewels but now exiled in Paris, sends her very good
friend, playboy Leon d'Algout, to interfere with the sale. When sly
Leon meets stern Comrade Nina Ivanovna, sent to take over from the
hapless emissaries, east-west romance results; but major
complications intervene...
Summary by:
Rod Crawford
Genres:
Comedy Romance
Keywords:
drunkenness culture-clash russians eiffel-tower thieves transformation
paris istanbul-turkey anti-communist jewelry
Producer:
Ernst Lubitsch
Director:
Ernst Lubitsch
Writers: (credits order)
Melchior Lengyel (story)
Charles Brackett &
Billy Wilder and
Walter Reisch
Composer:
Werner R. Heymann
Cinematographer:
William H. Daniels (as William Daniels)
Editor:
Gene Ruggiero
Costume Designer:
Adrian (gowns)
Art Director:
Cedric Gibbons
Set Decorator:
Edwin B. Willis
Assistant Directors:
Horace Hough (assistant director) (uncredited)
John Waters (II) (second unit director) (uncredited)
Sound:
Conrad Kahn (sound engineer) (uncredited)
Make-Up:
Jack Dawn (I) (makeup artist)
Sydney Guilaroff (hair stylist: Miss Claire)
Beth Langston (hair stylist) (uncredited)
Verified Complete Cast: (credits order)
Greta Garbo ....................... Ninotchka (Nina Ivanovna Yakushova)
Melvyn Douglas .................... Count Leon d'Algout
Ina Claire (I) .................... Grand Duchess Swana
Bela Lugosi ....................... Commissar Razinin
Sig Ruman (as Sig Rumann) ......... Michael Simonavich Iranoff
Felix Bressart .................... Buljanoff
Alexander Granach ................. Kopalski
Gregory Gaye ...................... Count Alexis Rakonin
Rolfe Sedan ....................... Hotel Manager
Edwin Maxwell ..................... Mercier, the Jeweler
Richard Carle ..................... Gaston, the Butler
Remainder of Cast: (alphabetical order)
Dorothy Adams (uncredited) ........ Jacqueline, Swana's maid
Monya Andre (uncredited) .......... Gossip
Nino Bellini (uncredited) ......... Swana's Restaurant Guest
Wilda Bennett (uncredited) ........ Swana's Restaurant Guest
Symona Boniface (uncredited) ...... Gossip
Emilie Cabanne (uncredited) ....... Gossip
George Davis (I) (uncredited) ..... Porter
Bess Flowers (uncredited) ......... Gossip
Mary Forbes (I) (uncredited) ...... Lady Lavenham
Jody Gilbert (uncredited) ......... Streetcar Conductress
Lawrence Grant (uncredited) ....... General Savitsky
Jennifer Gray (uncredited) ........ Cigarette Girl
Winifred Harris (uncredited) ...... English Lady Getting Visa
Ray Hendricks (uncredited) ........ Waiter
William Irving (I) (uncredited) ... Bartender
Hans Joby (uncredited) ............ Man at Railroad Station
Charles Judels (uncredited) ....... Pere Mathieu, Cafe Owner
Armand Kaliz (uncredited) ......... Louis, the Headwaiter
Peggy Moran (uncredited) .......... Cigarette Girl
Sandra Morgan (uncredited) ........ Gossip
Albert Pollet (uncredited) ........ Waiter
Frank Reicher (uncredited) ........ Lawyer
Constantine Romanoff (uncredited) .. Man in Restaurant
Alexander Schoenberg (uncredited) .. Bearded Man
Harry Semels (uncredited) ......... Gorganoff, the Neighbor Spy
Tamara Shayne (uncredited) ........ Anna
Florence Shirley (uncredited) ..... Marianne
George Sorel (uncredited) ......... Swana's Restaurant Guest
Edwin Stanley (uncredited) ........ Lawyer
Kay Stewart (uncredited) .......... Cigarette Girl
George Tobias (uncredited) ........ Russian Visa Official
Jacques Vanaire (uncredited) ...... Hotel Desk Clerk
Ellinor Vanderveer (uncredited) ... Gossip
Paul Weigel (uncredited) .......... Vladimir
Elizabeth Williams (II) (uncredited) .. Indignant Woman
Marek Windheim (uncredited) ....... Cafe Manager
Wolfgang Zilzer (uncredited) ...... Taxi Driver
Miscellaneous:
Milton Brown (III) (still photographer) (uncredited)
Randall Duell (associate art director)
George Elder (props) (uncredited)
Al Lane (second cameraman) (uncredited)
Eric Locke (production assistant) (uncredited)
Floyd Porter (chief electrician) (uncredited)
William Riley (IV) (assistant camera) (uncredited)
Jack Rohan (wardrobe) (uncredited)
Douglas Shearer (recording director)
Arnold Webster (grip) (uncredited)
Crew verified as complete.
Movie Links:
(remade as Silk Stockings (1957))
(remade as Ninotchka (1960) (TV))
(referenced in Electrical Power (1938))
(featured in MGM's Big Parade of Comedy (1964))
(featured in That's Entertainment, Part II (1976))
Quotes:
Ninotchka: We don't have men like you in my country.
Leon: Thank you.
Ninotchka: That is why I believe in the future of my country.
Leon: It's midnight. Look at the clock, one hand has met the other
hand, they kiss. Isn't that wonderful?
Count Leon D'Algout: Do you like me just a little bit?
Ninotchka: Your general appearance is not distasteful.
Ninotchka: Don't make an issue of my womanhood.
Ninotchka: Why do you want to carry my bags?
Porter: That is my business.
Ninotchka: That's no business. That's social injustice.
Porter: That depends on the tip.
Ninotchka: The last mass trials were a great success. There are going
to be fewer but better Russians.
Iranoff: Do you want to be alone, comrade?
Ninotchka: No.
Leon: A Russian! I love Russians! Comrade, I've been fascinated by
your five-year plan for the last fifteen years.
Ninotchka: What have you done for mankind?
Leon: Not so much for mankind...for womankind, my record isn't quite
so bleak.
Leon: Ninotchka, it's midnight. One half of Paris is making love to
the other half.
Ninotchka: Let's form our own party.
Leon: Right. Lovers of the world, unite!
Ninotchka: I'm so happy, I'm so happy! Nobody can be so happy without
being punished.
Leon: I'll picket your whole country! I'll boycott you! No more
vodka! No more caviar! No more Tchaikovsky! No more borscht!
Anna: Oh, that Burganoff. You never know if he's on his way to the
washroom or the secret police.
Ninotchka: I should hate to see our country endangered by my
underwear.
Comissar Razinin: This anonymous report was sent to me. They're
dragging the good name of our country through every cafe and
nightclub. Here: "How can the Bolshevik cause gain respect among
the Muslims if your three representatives Bujlianoff, Iranoff and
Kopalski get so drunk that they throw a carpet out of their hotel
window and complain to the management that it didn't fly?"
Iranoff: We can say whatever we want. We can shout! We can complain!
Look: "THE SERVICE IN THIS HOTEL IS TERRIBLE!" See? Nobody comes,
nobody pays any attention! That's freedom.
Bujlianoff: That's bad management.
Bujlianoff: There's an old Turkish proverb that says: "If something
smells bad, why put your nose in it?"
Ninotchka: And there is an old Russian saying: "The cat with cream on
his whiskers had better find good excuses."
Ninotchka: Must you flirt?
Count Leon d'Algout: Well, I don't have to, but I find it natural.
Ninotchka: Suppress it.
Literature:
Critics:
In: Diário de Notícias (Portugal). 28.06.1999. p. 63. (NP)
Essays:
Premiere Staff. "Classic Scene: Ninotchka". In Premiere (USA). Vol. 12, Iss. 3, November 1998. Pg. 148. (MG)
Business Info:
Budget:
$1,365,000 (USA)
Box Office Gross:
$1,092,000 (Non-USA)
$1,187,000 (USA)
$2,279,000 (Worldwide)
Production Dates:
31 May 1939 - 11 August 1939
Copyright Holder:
Loew's, Inc. (original)
U.S. Copyright LP9158, 2 October 1939
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