#monte blue

The Marriage Circle (1924)  

[letterboxd | imdb]

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Cinematographers: Charles Van Enger & Henry Sharp

SO THIS IS PARIS (1926): Delightfully silly Ernst Lubitsch silent comedy about a Parisian doctor, Paul Giraud (Monte Blue), whose wife Suzanne's crush on their handsome next-door neighbor, dancer Maurice Lallé (André Beranger), leads to no end of trouble, especially when Maurice's wife Georgette (Lilyan Tashman) turns out to be Paul's old flame, who is keen to give it another shot even though they're both married. The rest of the script can't live up to the champagne sparkle of the first 20 minutes, where Maurice's habit of doing his exercises shirtless in front of the window drives both Paul and Suzanne to distraction (Suzanne keeps becoming so overcome by lust that she has to lie down on the settee, and Paul has much the same reaction), and the finale loses all contact with reality, but it's very amusing, and a real eye-opener if you think of old movies as straight and sexless. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No, although that would have been a natural segue. VERDICT: When people talk about "the Lubitsch Touch," this is what they mean.

Above: Suzanne Giraud (Patsy Ruth Miller) takes one of several brief horniness-induced time-outs after seeing her neighbor Maurice Lallé (André Beranger) shirtless.