The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 12 – Lubitsch Musicals

Podcast: Download (49.8MB)

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor are joined by special guest Lauren LoGiudice to talk about Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals, four charming and hilarious pre-Code amusements from the late 1920s and early 1930s.

About the films:

Renowned as a silent film pioneer and the man who refined Hollywood comedy with such masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner and To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch also had another claim to fame: he helped invent the modern movie musical. With the advent of sound and audiences clamoring for “talkies,” Lubitsch combined his love of European operettas and his mastery of film to create this entirely new genre. These elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the Hays morality code, feature some of the greatest stars of early Hollywood (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins), as well as that elusive style of comedy that would thereafter be known as “the Lubitsch touch.”

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Timeline for the podcast:

Introduction/Background (00:00:01 – 00:16:07)

The Love Parade (00:16:08 – 00:38:04)

Monte Carlo (00:38:05 – 00:51:04)

The Smiling Lieutenant (00:51:05 – 01:08:27)

One Hour With You (01:08:28 – 01:33:49)

Conclusion (01:33:50 – 01:48:38)

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links:

Director Overview:

• The Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch
• Turner Classic Movies page on Lubitsch
• They Shoot Pictures Don’t They page on Lubitsch
• “Ernst Lubitsch’s charming pre-Code transgressions” by Kim Morgan from The Dissolve

Box Set Reviews:

•  Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich
• Discland review by Jonathon Doyle
• The Criterion Collection Database review by Dan Callahan

The Love Parade:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Virtual History page
• Flickdom Dictum review by Tony Pellum
• Senses of Cinema review by David Cairns
• Here and Now and Then review by Michael Koresky

Monte Carlo:

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review from 1930 by Mourdant Hall
• Cinemetrics review by Charles O’Brien
• The Top 10 Movie Project review by Larry McGillicuddy

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman 

Contact us:

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )
• Lauren LoGiudice ( Twitter / Website / GarboDreams.com )