|
| |
|
Paramount, 1938. Directed by
Ernst Lubitsch. Camera: Leo Tover. With
Claudette
Colbert, Gary
Cooper,
Edward
Everett Horton,
David Niven, Elizabeth Patterson, Herman Bing, Warren Hymer, Franklin
Pangborn, Armand Cortes, Rolfe Sedan, Lawrence Grant, Lionel Pape, Tyler
Brooke, Tom Ricketts, Barlowe Borland, Charles Halton, Sally Martin, Olaf
Hytten, Grace Goodall, Jimmie Dime,
Pauline Garon,
Eugene Berden, Ray De Ravenne, Jean De Briac, Sheila Darcy, Harry Lamont,
Blanche Franke, Jacques Vanaire, Joseph Romantini, MIchael Visaroff,
Alphonse Martell, Paul Pryar. |
Nicole De Loiselle meets American
millionaire Michael Brandon while shopping in a store on the French
Riviera. She buys the bottoms and he buys the tops of the same
suit of pajamas, while she gives him tips on how to cure insomnia by
spelling Czechoslovakia backwards. Michael continues to have
insomnia, however, and demands to change his suite at the hotel.
The managers show him a room but the Marquis De Loiselle is residing
there.
The Marquis tries to convince Michael to
go in on a deal with him, but Michael refuses until he recognizes
the pajama bottoms and the marquis identifies himself as Nicole's
father. Michael agrees to buy a Louis XIV bathtub from the
penniless marquis as a gesture of good will and informs the marquis
he wishes to marry his daughter.
Michael later proposes to Nicole while
she is at the beach with her friend Albert De Regnier, but she
refuses because he seems arrogant. Michael then sends an
apology and an invitation to dinner and they fall in love that
evening. At her engagement party, however, Nicole discovers
that Michael had been married seven times previously, and each time
had arranged a $50,000 per year divorce settlement in a pre-nuptial
agreement. Nicole furiously calls off the wedding, but then
agrees to marry for a $100,000 settlement. They never
consummate the marriage and live in separate rooms, despite attempts
by Michael to bridge the gap.
Nicole finally wears down Michael's
resistance by pretending to have an affair with Albert, and Michael
agrees to a divorce. He commits himself to a sanitarium
because Nicole completely broke his spirit, but with their newfound
wealth, the marquis buys the sanitarium and Nicole pledges her love
to Michael.
|
|
|
|
Click thumbnails for larger images |
|
|