Marriage comedy

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Movie
German title Marriage comedy
Original title That uncertain feeling
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 83 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ernst Lubitsch
script Donald Ogden Stewart
production Ernst Lubitsch
for Ernst Lubitsch Productions
music Werner R. Heymann
camera George Barnes
cut William Shea
occupation

Marriage Comedy is an American literary film adaptation by Ernst Lubitsch from 1941. It is based on Victorien Sardous and Émile de Najac's play Divorçons .

content

Jill and insurance agent Larry are considered New York City's model couple because they have been married for six years and their marriage seems carefree. The reality is that Jill keeps having hiccups that she doesn't know how to explain. Psychiatrist Vengard, to whom she went after some hesitation, diagnosed a marital crisis. In fact, Jill and Larry have little more to say to each other and when she wants to talk about her hiccups, he has the next business lunch on his mind.

In the psychiatrist's waiting room, Jill meets the eccentric pianist Sebastian, who thinks humanity is ugly and every now and then simply rates things as “ugh”. You go to a gallery where there is an abstract portrait of Sebastian. Jill buys a print of the picture and invites Sebastian to Larry's business dinner with various Hungarian businessmen. It turns out that Sebastian studied in Hungary and so he first saves the evening. In the end, however, he drives away the guests when he gives a private concert at the piano for hours. Only Jill is still there when Sebastian finishes his concert the next morning. Both get closer and Larry soon realizes that his wife has a relationship with the pianist - especially since the abstract painting is now hanging framed in the apartment. But Jill's hiccups are gone.

Larry decides to move into a hotel after a confrontation with Sebastian. Divorce is filed and Larry begins a minor affair with Sally, his business partner's secretary. Jill, on the other hand, suffers from living with Sebastian, who only plays the piano day and night, and the hiccups have returned. She fled to Larry when she found out about his relationship with Sally and tried to persuade him to have dinner. Sally, who comes to visit, drives them away without Larry noticing. Over looking old photos, Larry and Jill find themselves back together. Sebastian, who had left the apartment after an argument with Jill and now comes home at night and immediately starts playing the piano again, tells Larry, who comes out of the bedroom in his pajamas, to be quiet. Sebastian soberly packs his few belongings and moves out of Jill and Larry's house. Larry, on the other hand, goes to the apartment door at night and puts the door chain in front as a precaution. From then on, according to the fade-in at the end, Jill never had the hiccups again.

production

Married comedy was shot from October to December 1940 and was released in theaters on April 20, 1941. In the film it was a remake of Lubitsch's silent film Kiss me again (orig. Kiss Me Again ) from 1924.

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films wrote that "the trivial comedy [...] through Lubitsch's elegant and sensitive direction [became] an intelligent comedy."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 2. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 800.