Lubitsch, Ernst

(1892-1947)

   actor, director, and film* producer; equally skilled at comedy, epic drama, and delicate vignette, he was the early Republic's most successful director. Born in Berlin* to a prosperous Jewish tailor, he began assisting his father as a bookkeeper after Gymnasium. But lack-ing business acumen—"my son is a real schlemiel. When he hangs up a suit on the rack, five other suits fall down"—he became a full-time actor by age nineteen without completing Gymnasium (Weinberg). From cabaret* he was hired in 1911 by Max Reinhardt.* In 1913 he joined the Union-Film Company of Paul Davidson, one of Germany's earliest producers. His first film role, also in 1913, was as the lead in Meyer auf der Alm (Meyer in the Alps). After appearing in several short comedies, generally as a buffoon, he began doing his own work when Union ran low on ideas. His first effort as director and actor was Fraulein Seifenschaum (Miss Soapsuds), a slapstick 1914 film about a lady barber. By 1915 he was directing most of the comedies in which he acted. Davidson and Pola Negri persuaded him in 1918 to direct a drama, Die Augen der Mumie Ma (Eyes of the Mummy Ma), starring Negri and Emil Jannings.* Carmen, which appeared during the Armistice,* catapulted Negri to stardom and was Germany's picture of the year.

   In 1919 Davidson received funds from UFA* to embark upon Madame du Barry. With Jannings as Louis XV, Lubitsch directed the monumental produc-tion with two thousand extras, a studio-built Paris, and a full orchestra. A bril-liant success, Madame du Barry placed Germany at the forefront of film production. Lubitsch followed with Anna Boleyn, Die Puppe (The doll), Kohl-hiesels Tochter (Kohlhiesel's daughter), and Sumurun; all demonstrated his ge-nius with "escapist" drama. The quasi-impressionistic Die Flamme (The flame, 1922) closed his German career.

   In October 1922, at Mary Pickford's urging—she aimed to work for "the greatest director in Europe"—Lubitsch joined Warner Brothers in California (Negri soon followed, initiating the German "invasion" of Hollywood). His first film, Rosita, premiered in 1923 and was an unqualified success. He moved easily to sound. Trouble in Paradise (1932) is judged his first classic. In 1937 he cast Marlene Dietrich* in Angel; Claudette Colbert appeared in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) and Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939). In 1942 he directed and starred in the anti-Nazi satire To Be or Not to Be. Combining wit and ingenuity, his films are still valued for both advanced aesthetic qualities and entertainment appeal.

   REFERENCES:Steven Bach, Marlene Dietrich; Hake, Passions and Deceptions; Kra-cauer, From Caligari to Hitler; Wakeman, World Film Directors; Herman Weinberg, Lubitsch Touch.