The Marriage Circle (1924) :
Brief Review -
Ernst Lubitsch in silent era > talkie era, and I can have a roundtable argument for that. One of the finest comedies ever made on marriage, affairs, or anything around it. The so-called "Lubitsch touch," which was hyped by the talkies, works better in the silent era, at least for me. I have found Lubitsch's silent era films like "I Don't Want To Be A Man" (1918), "The Doll" (1919), and "The Oyester Princess" (1919) better than his talkies like "If I had a Million" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "Ninotchka" (1939), "To Be Or Not To Be" (1942), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), "Cluny Brown" (1946), and "In The Good Old Summertime" (1949). The last two are superb flicks actually and I enjoyed them the most amongst all, while "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940) tops the list by a wide margin. From today onward, there's going to be a lot of shuffling in the list as "The Marriage Circle" comes out as a huge surprise to me. A hilarious marriage comedy with all those influential, messy, and misunderstood situations of affairs and cheating. A perfect combo of everything in the writing and an outstanding screenplay. I can't remember how many Indian films and daily soaps have copied all those conflicts from here and called them their own. It's hard to believe that this was written almost a century ago. Lothar Schmidt's stage play must have left audiences in splits back then. I had so much fun watching it on the screen with intertitles that I can't imagine how much fun it would have been for those who saw the play live. The climax had me shouting out loud, "Oh.. my.. God.. That's it". "Didn't we kiss each other?" asks she, in front of her husband and the other side.. wait, I'm not supposed to spoil the fun, right? Just watch it, have a blast, and then tell others not to keep this gem underrated. Typically, love and marriage triumph, but the mess is fantastic and Timeless!
RATING - 8/10*
By - #samthebestest.
Ernst Lubitsch in silent era > talkie era, and I can have a roundtable argument for that. One of the finest comedies ever made on marriage, affairs, or anything around it. The so-called "Lubitsch touch," which was hyped by the talkies, works better in the silent era, at least for me. I have found Lubitsch's silent era films like "I Don't Want To Be A Man" (1918), "The Doll" (1919), and "The Oyester Princess" (1919) better than his talkies like "If I had a Million" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "Ninotchka" (1939), "To Be Or Not To Be" (1942), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), "Cluny Brown" (1946), and "In The Good Old Summertime" (1949). The last two are superb flicks actually and I enjoyed them the most amongst all, while "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940) tops the list by a wide margin. From today onward, there's going to be a lot of shuffling in the list as "The Marriage Circle" comes out as a huge surprise to me. A hilarious marriage comedy with all those influential, messy, and misunderstood situations of affairs and cheating. A perfect combo of everything in the writing and an outstanding screenplay. I can't remember how many Indian films and daily soaps have copied all those conflicts from here and called them their own. It's hard to believe that this was written almost a century ago. Lothar Schmidt's stage play must have left audiences in splits back then. I had so much fun watching it on the screen with intertitles that I can't imagine how much fun it would have been for those who saw the play live. The climax had me shouting out loud, "Oh.. my.. God.. That's it". "Didn't we kiss each other?" asks she, in front of her husband and the other side.. wait, I'm not supposed to spoil the fun, right? Just watch it, have a blast, and then tell others not to keep this gem underrated. Typically, love and marriage triumph, but the mess is fantastic and Timeless!
RATING - 8/10*
By - #samthebestest.