How Would Lubitsch Do It?

[Due to our last-minute addition of two episodes, the podcast feed mistakenly had S5E09a queued here for a few hours this morning - it should now be fixed!] How Would Lubitsch Do It comes to a close with a grand finale. Tim Brayton returns to discuss Cluny Brown and look back on both Ernst Lubitsch’s career and the past five seasons of this show. First, we discuss everything Cluny Brown: the film’s generosity and humanism, its commentary on British class society, its relationship with the second world war, its full-throated embrace of absurdism, the title character’s magnetism, Adam Belinski’s status as a revision on a stock villain, and the film’s somewhat autobiographical and wonderfully optimistic ending. Second, we close out the show with a look back: we debate our respective rankings (Tim, Devan) of Lubitsch’s filmography, highlight our favourite cast members, crew members and collaborators, discuss subsequent filmmakers who bear distinct marks of Lubitsch’s influence, discuss whether or not the show’s structure accurately reflects the ebbs and flows and our subject’s career, and answer the key questions: why Lubitsch? Why a podcast? Edited by Griffin Sheel. A Thanks I started this quixotic project two years ago with the hope of making something that spoke to me and, if anyone else was interested, so be it. Turns out some other people were interested, and if you’re reading this now, that’s probably you. My endless and sincere thanks for sticking it through. Thanks to the many guests who lent their time and support throughout the show: Lauren Faulkner Rossi, Fran Hoepfner, Bram Ruiter, Luci Marzola, Jaime Rebenal, Maddie Whittle, Paul Cuff, Kristin Thompson, Stefan Droissler, Molly Rasberry, Sarah Shachat, James Penco, Dave Kehr, Julia Sirmons, David Neary, Patrick Keating, Jennifer Fleeger, Katharine Coldiron, Jonathan Mackris, Will Sloan, Lea Jacobs, Tanya Goldman, Krin Gabbard, Jordan Fish, Ray Tintori, Z Behl, Eric Dienstfrey, Scott Eyman, Imogen Sarah Smith, Chris Cassingham, Olympia Kiriakou, Griffin Newman, Kevin Bahr, Whit Stillman, Adrian Martin, Jose Arroyo, Lance St. Laurent, Tim Brayton, William Paul, Dara Jaffe, Gary Jaffe, Peter Labuza, Willa Harlow Ross, Eloise Ross, David Cairns, Noah Isenberg, Matt Severson, Mateusz Pacewicz, and Charlotte Garson. Our editors: Griffin Sheel, Gloria Mercer, Willa Harlow Ross, Sophia Yoon, Rylee Cronin, Brennen King, & Eden Cote-Foster Our location sound engineer, Anna Citak-Scott. And others who lent valuable counsel and support: the Margaret Herrick Library, the Museum of Modern Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and most of all to Ernst Lubitsch, who taught me more than it could possibly take the sixty-eight episodes of this podcast to describe. This entire experience - hundreds of hours of research, recording, and editing - has been among the great pleasures of my life, and everyone’s contributions have meant a great deal to me. Onwards to whatever’s next!

Screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz (Corpus Christi, The Hater) joins us to discuss the films of Lubitsch from a Polish perspective. We coverTo Be Or Not To Be’s depiction of Warsaw, the history of Lubitsch’s collaborators such as Pola Negri, the dynamics of European immigrants in twentieth-century America, the nature of dark comedy and ‘lightness’, the nature of performance, lies, truth, identity, and nationality, and the tall tales of Andrzej Krakowski. David Neary also stops by for an encore discussion of Heaven Can Wait. Edited by Griffin Sheel. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: In our penultimate episode, Cahiers du Cinéma deputy editor Charlotte Garson joins us for a retrospective! WORKS CITED: Ernst Lubitsch in Warsaw - April 26, 1936, Kino no. 17

Author Noah Isenberg joins us to discuss Billy Wilder and his 1961 comedic epic One, Two, Three. We cover Wilder’s early life as a reporter, a dancer-for-hire, and publicist; his lifelong ability to adapt to his circumstances; the question of his cynicism (or is it frustrated romanticism?); and his fraught relationship with Germany. Later on, we cover the fascinating production of One, Two, Three, the manners in which the film echoes his earlier work, and Jimmy Cagney’s superhuman verbal stamina. Edited by Eden Cote-Foster. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: Matt Severson joins us to discuss Wes Anderson and The Grand Budapest Hotel. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov Wilder on Assignment: Dispatches from Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna by Noah Isenberg

David Cairns returns to discuss the end of Ernst Lubitsch’s career and life: a period in which, after a heart attack left him debilitated, he produced a series of films directed by the likes of Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Otto Preminger. We cover Dragonwyck, cinema’s foremost depiction of the Dutch patroonship system in what is now upstate New York; A Royal Scandal, a remake of Forbidden Paradise; andThat Lady in Ermine, Lubitsch’s final unfinished project later completed to little effect by Otto Preminger. Throughout the episode, we discuss the gap in worldviews between Lubitsch and Preminger, our dream Lubitsch/actor pairings that never came to pass, Billy Wilder’s tall tales, Ernst Lubitsch’s death, and what comes next. Edited by Brennen King. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: A reading of Freundschaft, Samson Raphaelson’s eulogy for Ernst Lubitsch. WORKS CITED: The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger by Chris Fujiwara

Willa Ross returns for a lively discussion about Heaven Can Wait. We cover Lubitsch and Raphaelson’s opposing views on the film’s unusual protagonist, its counterintuitive structure and elisions, the film’s theological implications, argue about whether or not the production code negatively impacted the film, and discuss what happened at Fox in the early 1970s and why it matters for technicolor pictures such as this. Edited by Griffin Sheel. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: Writer and film historian Eloise Ross joins us to discuss Otto Preminger and his 1944 noir Laura. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: Eloise Ross's Writeup for HEAVEN CAN WAIT in Senses of CInema Heaven Can Wait: The Simple Act of Living by William Paul Robert Harris’s “KNIGHTS OF FILM PRESERVATION” Forum Post

Returning guest Dara Jaffe and first-time guest Gary Jaffe join us for the first of two episodes on To Be Or Not To Be. In this episode, we cover the interplay between theatre and film, and of improvisation and comedy; the many dimensions of the film’s relationship with Jewish identities; the use of empathy and humanism as anti-fascist tools; Lubitsch’s self-reflexive approach to diegetic reality; the key character of Greenberg, and Felix Bressart’s performance; the history of performances of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice; and the film’s influence on contemporary cinema. Recorded at the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, CA by Anna Citak-Scott. Edited by Griffin Sheel. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: Peter Labuza returns for the second of two discussions on To Be Or Not To Be. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: Production Code Administration notes on To Be Or Not To Be Hollywood's Other Great Anti-Nazi Movie by Thomas Doherty David Kalat’s Commentary on the Criterion Edition of To Be Or Not To Be Adrian Martin’s Review of To Be Or Not To Be. To Be Or Not To Be (A Jew) by Dorian Stuber and Marianne Tettlebaum

Tim Brayton returns to discuss noted Lubitsch fan and disciple Preston Sturges and his 1941 meta-comedy SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. We cover Sturges’ immense admiration of Lubitsch, the film’s immensely fascinating but perhaps frustrating relationship with its own status as a satire of its own form, Sturges’ political beliefs and moral compass, the value of communal viewings to comedic cinema, and much more. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: We’re taking a little break! See you in a few weeks for the last eleven episodes of Season 5, the end of our story. WORKS CITED: Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: From Lubitsch to Sturges and The Lady Eve (The Current) by James Harvey Pursuits of Happiness: A Reading of the lady Eve by Stanley Cavell Fast Talk: Preston Sturges and the Speed of Sound by Joe McElhaney Preston Sturges: Success in the Movies by Manny Farber and W.S. Poster Christmas in July (Review) by Adrian Martin

This week, we present an episode of the SCREEN GUILD THEATER starring Ernst Lubitsch, Claudette Colbert, and possibly Jack Benny! Originally aired on October 20th, 1940. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: Lance St. Laurent joins us to discuss THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING, as well as some comedic theory. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: Ernst Lubitsch: The Radio Years (Forum Post) - A list of every Lubitsch-related episode of the Screen Guild Theater.

Whit Stillman and Jose Arroyo join us for our second episode on THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. Whit discusses Lubitsch’s writing process, the ways in which the film is exemplary of the Hollywood studio system at its best, and his admiration for Pirovitch. Jose later joins us for a formal breakdown of the film’s final scene. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: Film critic Adrian Martin joins us for our final episode on THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. WORKS CITED: Whit Stillman: Not So Long Ago Stillman's Writeup on THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER for the New York Times Jose Arroyo's Podcast Episode on SHOP and YOU'VE GOT MAIL

Author Donald Bracket joins us to discuss NINOTCHKA, and in particular the collaboration between the film’s two writers: Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. We cover their tumultuous collaboration from their first films to its sordid ending with the masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD, as well as the development of the screenplay for NINOTCHKA. Edited by Griffin Sheel. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT WEEK: Kevin Bahr joins us for the first of our episodes on THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: DOUBLE SOLITAIRE: The Films of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilderby Donald Brackett

Film historian and podcast host Dr. Olympia Kiriakou joins us to discuss Lubitsch’s sole screwball comedy: BLUEBEARD’S EIGHTH WIFE. We run down the definition of “screwball” through lenses of class, sex, tone, and pace; the impact of the production code on the genre; the uneasy fit between Lubitsch and the genre; the film’s terrific meet-cute; the introduction of two upstarts named Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett; and much more! We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Edited by Sophia Yoon. NEXT WEEK: Podcaster and actor Griffin Newman joins us to discuss NINOTCHKA.. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: Becoming Carole Lombard by Olympia Kiriakou The Screwball Story Podcast

Film writer and author Imogen Sara Smith joins us to discuss Frank Borzage’s DESIRE, produced by Ernst Lubitsch during his tenure as Production Head at Paramount Studios! In this episode, we discuss the state of Lubitsch’s career in this time of personal and political upheaval, the state of Hollywood in the Hays Code era, the the careers of Marlene Dietrich and Frank Borzage, the film’s relationship with genre, and the code-mandated final beat of the plot. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Edited by Brennen King NEXT WEEK: Film programmer and curator Chris Cassingham joins us to discuss ANGEL. For information as to where to find this film, check out our resources page. WORKS CITED: The Motion Picture Production ("Hays") Code [Full Text] Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend by Steven Bach

It’s our season finale, and the end of the pre-code era! To celebrate, Tim Brayton returns to discuss THE MERRY WIDOW. We effuse about the film’s infectious energy, the many incredible ‘Lubitsch Touch’ moments and gestures, discuss Lubitsch’s extremely loose adaptation of the Lehar operetta, the French-language version, Edward Everett Horton’s greatest role, the film’s relationship with love and death, the more “conservative” nature of the film’s resolution, and much more! With that, Season 4 of HOW WOULD LUBITSCH DO IT comes to a close, and with it the pre-code era. Oh how we’ll miss you, lax Hays office overseers. Thanks to the guests who lent their time and support to this season: Jennifer Fleeger, Katharine Coldiron, Jonathan Mackris, Will Sloan, Matt Severson, Lea Jacobs, Tanya Goldman, Willa Ross, Krin Gabbard, Molly Rasberry, Jordan Fish, Ray Tintori, Z Behl, Eric Dienstfrey and Tim Brayton. Our editors: Gloria Mercer, Griffin Sheel, Sophia Yoon, & Rylee Cronin. Our location sound engineer, Anna Citak-Scott. And others who lent valuable counsel and support: Peter Labuza, Jose Arroyo, the Margaret Herrick Library, Dave Kehr and the Museum of Modern Art, Dara Jaffe and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Patrick Keating, Scott Eyman, Paul Cuff, David Cairns, and all the members of our Discord. We have a Discord! Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify NEXT SEASON: The censor’s hammer falls, and Lubitsch’s career comes to a close in grand fashion in Season 5. WORKS CITED: MPAA Production Code Administration Records for THE MERRY WIDOW The Merry Widow Blog Entry by Jose Arroyo