Ernst Lubitsch

Ernst Lubitsch

Born: January 28, 1892
Died: November 30, 1947
in Berlin, Germany
Ernst Lubitsch (January 29, 1892 – November 30, 1947) was a German film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch".

Lubitsch is best known for screwball comedies and romantic comedies, such as Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). While being escapist, his films often offer social commentary on human relationships and society in a satirical way.

Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States.

Movies for Ernst Lubitsch...

100 Years of the UFA
Title: 100 Years of the UFA
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: August 28, 2017
Type: Movie
The intricate history of UFA, a film production company founded in 1917 that has survived the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, the Adenauer era and the many and tumultuous events of contemporary Germany, and has always been the epicenter of the German film industry.
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From Caligari to Hitler
Title: From Caligari to Hitler
Character: Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Released: May 28, 2015
Type: Movie
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1919, when the Republic of Weimar is born, to 1933, when the Nazis come into power. (Followed by Hitler's Hollywood, 2017.)
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Hitler: A Career
Title: Hitler: A Career
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: July 8, 1977
Type: Movie
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.
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The Eternal Jew
Title: The Eternal Jew
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: November 28, 1940
Type: Movie
A Nazi propaganda film made to promote anti-Semitism among the German people. Newly-shot footage of Jewish neighborhoods in recently-conquered Poland is combined with preexisting film clips and stills to defame the religion and advance Hitler's slurs that its adherents were plotting to undermine European civilization.
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Ninotchka
Title: Ninotchka
Character: Himself - Director in Trailer (uncredited)
Released: November 23, 1939
Type: Movie
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
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Mr. Broadway
Title: Mr. Broadway
Character: Ernst Lubitsch
Released: September 12, 1933
Type: Movie
Ed Sullivan shows night spots all over New York in this movie, joking and listening to stories the patrons tell.
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Sumurun
Title: Sumurun
Character: Yeggar - the Hunchback Beggar
Released: September 1, 1920
Type: Movie
The favorite slave girl of a tyrannical sheik falls in love with a cloth merchant. Meanwhile, a hunchback clown suffers unrequited love for a traveling dancer who wants to join the harem.
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Käsekönig Holländer
Title: Käsekönig Holländer
Released: March 1, 1919
Type: Movie
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Meyer from Berlin
Title: Meyer from Berlin
Character: Sally Meyer
Released: January 17, 1919
Type: Movie
Sally Meyer, a young Berliner, persuades his Doctor to convince his wife that he is ill, so that he is able to take a holiday in the Austrian Alps in order to pursue women. Meyer dresses up in what he considers Tyrolean attire. However, he mistakenly travels to the Bavarian Alps rather than Austria. Meyer becomes infatuated with Kitty, a young, attractive woman at the hotel where he is staying. His pursuit of her angers many of her other suitors who are also staying at the hotel. In order to impress Kitty, Meyer agrees rather reluctantly to climb Mount Watzmann. While they are approaching the summit, both Meyer's wife and Kitty's fiancee unexepectedly arrive from Berlin.
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Der Fall Rosentopf
Title: Der Fall Rosentopf
Character: Sally
Released: September 19, 1918
Type: Movie
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
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The Toboggan Cavalier
Title: The Toboggan Cavalier
Character: Sally Piner
Released: March 1, 1918
Type: Movie
A young woman is forced by her father to marry a man she doesn't love and flees before the marriage takes place. In a small village she falls in love with a young man, but her father disapproves of the match.
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Prinz Sami
Title: Prinz Sami
Character: Prinz Sami
Released: January 1, 1918
Type: Movie
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When Four Do the Same
Title: When Four Do the Same
Character: Bit Role
Released: November 16, 1917
Type: Movie
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Lubitsch plays a book shop employee who falls in love with Jannings' daughter.
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Der Blusenkönig
Title: Der Blusenkönig
Released: November 2, 1917
Type: Movie
Sally Katz begins a new job as a supervisor in the workshop of a garment maker where the boss's nasty daughter makes him advances. But the girl's father forbids him to flirt back.
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Hans Trutz in the Land of Milk and Honey
Title: Hans Trutz in the Land of Milk and Honey
Character: Der Teufel Satan
Released: November 1, 1917
Type: Movie
A stylized fairy tale in which a farmer sells his soul to Satan in exchange for prosperity.
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The Tenor, Inc.
Title: The Tenor, Inc.
Character: Sally
Released: December 22, 1916
Type: Movie
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The New Nose
Title: The New Nose
Character: Ernst
Released: December 15, 1916
Type: Movie
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The Most Beautiful Gift
Title: The Most Beautiful Gift
Character: Verehrer
Released: November 24, 1916
Type: Movie
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The Mixed Ladies Chorus
Title: The Mixed Ladies Chorus
Character: Dirigent
Released: June 21, 1916
Type: Movie
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Pinkus's Shoe Palace
Title: Pinkus's Shoe Palace
Character: Sally Pinkus
Released: June 9, 1916
Type: Movie
Sally Pinkus is an German-Jewish boy who takes a job as a shoe store clerk after being expelled from school for goofing around. Soon fired for trying to court the owner's daughter, Pinkus lands another job in a more 'upmarket' shoe salon, only to be fired again, before charming a rich benefactress to fund his ultimate dream: Pinkus' Shoe Palace.
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Doctor Satanson
Title: Doctor Satanson
Character: Dr. Satansohn
Released: March 17, 1916
Type: Movie
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Where Is My Treasure?
Title: Where Is My Treasure?
Character: Ernst Lubitsch
Released: February 25, 1916
Type: Movie
Because Ernst feels oppressed by his wife and her mother, he fakes his suicide and hires in his own household disguised as a servant.
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How I Was Murdered
Title: How I Was Murdered
Released: December 1, 1915
Type: Movie
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The Last Suit
Title: The Last Suit
Released: November 2, 1915
Type: Movie
Lost film.
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The Bodybuilder
Title: The Bodybuilder
Character: Stubenhocker
Released: November 2, 1915
Type: Movie
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Robert and Bertram
Title: Robert and Bertram
Character: Kommis Max Edelstein
Released: August 12, 1915
Type: Movie
Based on the 1856 Gustav Räder play Robert and Bertram about the adventures of two wandering vagrants, which has been turned into films on several occasions.
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His Only Patient
Title: His Only Patient
Character: Doktor
Released: July 31, 1915
Type: Movie
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Miss Soapsuds
Title: Miss Soapsuds
Released: June 25, 1915
Type: Movie
Fräulein Seifenschaum is a German silent film by Ernst Lubitsch from 1915. It is considered Lubitsch's first directorial work and is one of the director's lost works. With the outbreak of World War I , all the men, including the barbers , are drafted. As a result, the women have to take over their work, and so mother and daughter share the work in a barber's shop: the daughter soaps the customers, while the mother then more or less skilfully shaves the men. A customer named Ernst also wants to be shaved. He makes eyes at the daughter and is resolutely thrown out of the shop by his mother. Ernst flees with his great love in the car and is followed by his mother on foot and finally on a tricycle.
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Miss Bellboy
Title: Miss Bellboy
Character: Pinkeles
Released: June 2, 1915
Type: Movie
Miss Lo leaves finishing school and returns to her parents’ hotel “Zum Weißen Schwan”. One of the chambermaids eloped with the bellboy and now the daughter has to help out – sometimes as a maid, sometimes in the guise of a bellboy. When she falls in love with Lieutenant Clairon, her male disguise begins to stand in her way. At a ball she has to to look on helplessly while he’s flirting with other women. But with the help of her friend Röschen, who’s the cousin of Clairon, a happy ending is attained.
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Sugar and Cinnamon
Title: Sugar and Cinnamon
Released: May 28, 1915
Type: Movie
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Blind Cow
Title: Blind Cow
Character: Verlobter
Released: May 28, 1915
Type: Movie
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A Trip on the Ice
Title: A Trip on the Ice
Character: Ernst
Released: May 21, 1915
Type: Movie
Lost comedy film.
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Arme Maria
Title: Arme Maria
Character: Commissioner Moritz Rosenthal
Released: May 7, 1915
Type: Movie
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The Pride of the Firm
Title: The Pride of the Firm
Character: Siegmund Lachmann
Released: April 30, 1914
Type: Movie
Der Stolz der Firma, meaning The Pride of the Business, is a classic German silent film from 1914. The film tells the story of a shrewd apprentice and is filmed in the comical style of director Lubitsch. This is one of the few Lubitsch films from World War I that wasn’t lost.
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A Venetian Night
Title: A Venetian Night
Released: April 15, 1914
Type: Movie
The young Anselmus Aselmeyer fulfilled a long cherished dream: He travels to Venice, the city of his dreams. Once there, the porter Pipistrello directs him immediately to the hotel of his boss, and Anselmus lands in the middle of a wedding party. Mestre Mangiabene, a wealthy oilman, marries the beautiful but completely depleted Marchesina dei Bisognosi. But the secretly loves an officer.
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The Firm Gets Married
Title: The Firm Gets Married
Released: January 2, 1914
Type: Movie
Directed by Carl Wilhelm.
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The Ideal Wife
Title: The Ideal Wife
Released: September 19, 1913
Type: Movie
The bachelor Paul lives as the only man in a household with his mother, his aunts, sisters and cousins. They are annoyed by his teasing.
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The Miracle
Title: The Miracle
Character: Spielmann
Released: December 21, 1912
Type: Movie
When a wayward nun, Megildis, deserts her convent with a knight, a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and takes place of Megildis, who makes her way through the world and its many vicissitudes.