McBride, one of our foremost film historians, the author of solid, well-informed books on Welles, Ford, Frank Capra, and Steven Spielberg, has taken up the cudgels for his favorite master of sophisticated comedy ... [An] excellent, authoritative book—which offers all the necessary points to be made about Lubitsch, is chockful of cultivated insights and astute quotes, and is even forthright about his subject’s clinkers—with a lament.
Joseph McBride has written a love letter to a filmmaker—at nearly 500 pages, an extended love letter indeed, but one fueled by years of devotion ... Mr. McBride’s detailed appreciations could serve, ideally, as a viewer’s companion to the many layers of Lubitsch’s art.
Since Lubitsch’s day, McBride observes a consistent decline in sophisticated comedy, which has been replaced by shock humor and profanity. The author fears that 'the trends that have dumbed down our society' explain, in part, why interest in historic films has waned.However, McBride remains optimistic. Access to films new and old is on the rise, which means that more people may discover hidden gems, sparking renewed interest in Lubitsch and other Golden Age filmmakers. McBride’s study serves as both a biography and a cultural history of Europe’s influence on Hollywood that will be a great companion for those interested in underexplored comedies in film history.
McBride takes us through Lubitsch’s working life—from Weimar Germany to Hollywood—and shows us how he matured with every step in his career: the slumming-around in bit Shakespearean roles in Max Reinhardt’s theater troupe, the lavish German spectacles, the zany comedies, the rejuvenation of Hollywood’s silent film industry ... McBride’s insights on each of these gems sparkle with a devoted fan’s carefully discerning eye. McBride encourages us to look at lesser-known yet incredible Lubitsch films ... Even when you don’t agree with McBride, he’s still interesting ... McBride does much-needed work in showing how Lubitsch was one of the consummate artists America was ever lucky enough to claim as her own.
