Yogi's Movie Consumption Blog

A philandering man has to go to heaven to fully grasp his wife's loyalty. It's quite a bizarre piece of advocacy - in heaven a man comes to his senses when he realizes that his wife was his only true love (despite many other attempts by him to court others), and they sort of live happily ever after. Although smart in execution I feel that this premise makes for a rather one sided view of things. And the longer I think about it, the more depressing it actually gets. It's not so much the anti-morality I object, but simply that it's not funny enough. Quite possibly it is sort of a WW2 Vegas-weekend movie version, and the undertones simply don't work anymore these days. Other than that, this is Technicolor at its fullest glory (especially RED) and quite an amazing picture to watch. But maybe expectation for this Lubitsch were light years, so I could have only come out disappointed. Still looking forward to Trouble in Paradise, though.

A shop clerk falls in love with a woman through letters while squabbling with the young lady he gave a position in the shop. A very play-like story, most of it taking place in the shop and in the manager's office, and as a apron the store door in the morning. The story is pretty straightforward and is entirely set in the daily universe of the participants.  I like how all the different characters story came together in the end and the story only had to rely on very few "information bringers" - there is the detective reporting the infidelities of his wife to Matuschek - and even there he is only shown once to clear up the store owner's mistake. There was a strong nostalgic and (obviously) Christmasy atmosphere throughout the film, but it was still quite enjoyable.