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Springtime Paris, public and private spaces, the park bench and the matrimonial bed. Marching into the boudoir, the doctor (Maurice Chevalier) pauses to address the audience: "I am married, and I like it. Sorry to disappoint you." The wife (Jeanette MacDonald) awaits in lingerie, the couple's friskiness is undiminished by wedding rings. Their bliss is contrasted with another couple's fabricated formalities, as the professor (Roland Young) and his divorce lawyer gravely consider a painting of the tawny wife (Genevieve Tobin). "When I married her, she was a brunette. Now you can't believe anything she says." Flirtatious paths cross in the back seat of a taxi, suddenly the minx declares herself in need of medical attention, high heels are kicked off the divan in randy anticipation of the doctor's visit. Ernst Lubitsch "assisted" by George Cukor, officially a musical rewrite of The Marriage Circle but also training grounds for Dinner at Eight and Holiday. "I leave everything to the moment." "It's a very good place to live in." The dapper case for elasticity of fidelity in a world of seduction, discretion and manners—rearranging seats at the dinner table utterly quakes a relationship, being caught with your tie undone in the garden terrace is no different from getting caught with your pants around your ankles. "Ancient history" and les amants modernes, lyrics or at least rhymes, "Oh, That Mitzi!" Smitten under the moonlight, the would-be Romeo (Charles Ruggles) voices the Lubitsch dilemma with awkward ardor: "If I didn't have such a splendid education, I'd yield to the animal in me." It all leads back to the drawing room for the benefit of Pinter, the fourth wall broken along with a marital convention or two. With Josephine Dunn, Richard Carle, Barbara Leonard, and George Barbier. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |