Joseph McBride’s book, “How Did Lubitsch Do It?,” reacquaints readers with the director’s genius while pondering how he slipped from our collective memory.
Revisiting the German-born filmmaker’s singular vision is a worthy task. “Through his eyes,” McBride writes, “we can live vicariously in that artificial, largely imaginary world he created and which he made so much more alluring than the messy world outside the movie palaces or the video screens of our day.”
The director said it best, “I do not make German or American films, but rather Lubitsch films.” Like Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson today, the filmmaker crafted stories that could only happen in a Lubitsch world. He was also ahead of his time with depictions of sexually liberated themes. As early as 1918, he toyed with gender roles in “I Don’t Want to be a Man.”
At Paramount Studios, Lubitsch created some of the first integrated musicals, including 1929’s “The Love Parade” and “One Hour With You” in 1932.
That year, Lubitsch also made one of his most beloved films, “Trouble in Paradise,” a romantic comedy about two criminals falling in love featuring dialogue replete with censor-dodging double entendres.
Lubitsch made a series of edgy films during the “pre-code” era, before censorship employed rules instead of loose guidelines. A film such as “Design for Living” (1933), about a risque living arrangement that leads to a love triangle, wouldn’t get made after the code got its teeth. Lines such as, “It’s true we have a gentleman’s agreement, but unfortunately I’m no gentleman,” would be too hot for the times. In fact, the film was the first to be condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. Its re-release was prevented for years, and remakes were also forbidden by censors.
As formal censorship took hold in Hollywood, Lubitsch found himself in a difficult spot, unable to produce the sexually progressive films that made him famous. After rethinking his approach, Lubitsch managed to direct some remarkable films, such as the sly anti-communist “Ninotchka” (1939), which features a cunning, sassy and witty Greta Garbo, “You’ve Got Mail” precursor “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940) and the sharp anti-Nazi yarn “To Be or Not To Be” (1942).
However, McBride remains optimistic. Access to films new and old is on the rise, which means that more people may discover hidden gems, sparking renewed interest in Lubitsch and other Golden Age filmmakers. McBride’s study serves as both a biography and a cultural history of Europe’s influence on Hollywood that will be a great companion for those interested in underexplored comedies in film history.
Chris Yogerst is the author of “From the Headlines to Hollywood: The Birth and Boom of Warner Bros.” He is working on a book about the 1941 Senate investigation of motion picture propaganda.
By Joseph McBride. Columbia University Press. 576 pp. $40
