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Release: December 7, 2020

$6.99

Description

From Ernst Lubitsch, the iconic director of Trouble in Paradise, The Merry Widow, Angel, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife and Ninotchka, comes the Pre-Code drama Broken Lullaby, the most emotionally powerful film in the master’s extraordinary oeuvre. French violinist Paul Renard (Phillips Holmes, An American Tragedy) has returned from World War I triumphant, but is haunted by the death of a German soldier at his hands. Determined to make amends, he travels to the dead man’s hometown and meets his former fiancée, Elsa (Nancy Carroll, The Kiss Before the Mirror), and grieving father (Lionel Barrymore, Duel in the Sun). Rather than reveal his true identity, Paul tells the two that he was a former friend of the deceased soldier. As Elsa and Paul draw closer and the family embraces him as one of their own, Paul’s conscience is torn between revealing his past guilt and embracing a future he never knew possible. While Lubitsch put his sophisticated touch on many of filmdom’s greatest comedies, he also showed his brilliant command of drama with the beautifully crafted, profoundly moving Broken Lullaby. Special Features: -Brand New 2K Master -NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Joseph McBride, author of How Did Lubitsch Do It? -Trailers

Release: September 17, 2019

$7.99

Description

The final film completed by Ernst Lubitsch, this zany, zippy comedy of manners, set in England on the cusp of World War II, is one of the worldly wise director’s most effervescent creations. Jennifer Jones shines in a rare comedic turn as Cluny Brown, an irrepressible heroine with a zeal for plumbing. Sent to work as a parlormaid at a stuffy country manor, she proceeds to turn the household upside down—with plenty of help from Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer), an eccentric continental exile who has fled the Nazis but is still worried about where his next meal is coming from. Sending up British class hierarchy with Lubitsch’s famously light touch, Cluny Brown is a topsy turvy farce that says nuts to the squirrels and squirrels to the nuts. BLU RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • New conversation between film critics Molly Haskell and Farran Smith Nehme on unconventional female characters in Ernst Lubitsch’s films • New video essay by film scholar Kristin Thompson • The Lubitsch Touch, an interview with film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz from 2004 • Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1947, featuring Olivia de Havilland and Charles Boyer • PLUS: An essay by novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt

Release: February 17, 2026

$7.99

Description

Renowned as a silent-film pioneer and the man who refined Hollywood comedy with such masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch also had another claim to fame: he helped invent the modern movie musical. With the advent of sound, and with audiences clamoring for “talkies,” Lubitsch combined his love of European operettas and his mastery of cinema to develop this entirely new genre. These elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the moralizing Production Code, feature some of the greatest stars of early Hollywood (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins), as well as that elusive style of comedy that would thereafter be known as “the Lubitsch touch.” SPECIAL FEATURES An essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky THE LOVE PARADE Ernst Lubitsch’s first full talkie was also Hollywood’s first movie musical to integrate songs with narrative. Additionally, The Love Parade made stars out of toast-of-Paris Maurice Chevalier and girl-from-Philly Jeanette MacDonald, cast as a womanizing military attaché and the man-hungry queen of “Sylvania,” respectively. With its naughty innuendo and satiric romance, The Love Parade opened the door for a decade of witty screen battles of the sexes. MONTE CARLO Jeanette MacDonald’s independent-minded countess leaves her foppish prince fiancé at the altar, and whisks herself away to the Riviera. There, she strikes the fancy of the sly Count Rudolph (theater veteran Jack Buchanan), who poses as a hairdresser to get into her boudoir. Ernst Lubitsch’s follow-up to The Love Parade shows even more musical invention, and presents MacDonald at her haughtily sexy best. THE SMILING LIEUTENANT Maurice Chevalier’s randy Viennese lieutenant is enamored of Claudette Colbert’s freethinking, all-girl-orchestra-leading cutie. Yet complications ensue when the sexually repressed princess (newcomer Miriam Hopkins) of the fictional kingdom of Flausenthurm sets her sights on him. Ernst Lubitsch’s The Smiling Lieutenant is a delightful showcase for its rising female stars, who are never more charming than when Colbert tunefully instructs Hopkins, “Jazz Up Your Lingerie.” ONE HOUR WITH YOU Ernst Lubitsch reunites Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, this time as a seemingly blissful couple whose marriage hits the skids when her flirtatious school chum comes on to her husband a bit too strong. Necking in the park at nighttime, husbands and wives having casual dalliances, and a butler telling his master, “I did so want to see you in tights!”: Lubitsch’s final pre-Code musical is one of his sauciest escapades.

Release: February 17, 2026

$7.99

Description

Renowned as a silent-film pioneer and the man who refined Hollywood comedy with such masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch also had another claim to fame: he helped invent the modern movie musical. With the advent of sound, and with audiences clamoring for “talkies,” Lubitsch combined his love of European operettas and his mastery of cinema to develop this entirely new genre. These elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the moralizing Production Code, feature some of the greatest stars of early Hollywood (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins), as well as that elusive style of comedy that would thereafter be known as “the Lubitsch touch.” SPECIAL FEATURES An essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky THE LOVE PARADE Ernst Lubitsch’s first full talkie was also Hollywood’s first movie musical to integrate songs with narrative. Additionally, The Love Parade made stars out of toast-of-Paris Maurice Chevalier and girl-from-Philly Jeanette MacDonald, cast as a womanizing military attaché and the man-hungry queen of “Sylvania,” respectively. With its naughty innuendo and satiric romance, The Love Parade opened the door for a decade of witty screen battles of the sexes. MONTE CARLO Jeanette MacDonald’s independent-minded countess leaves her foppish prince fiancé at the altar, and whisks herself away to the Riviera. There, she strikes the fancy of the sly Count Rudolph (theater veteran Jack Buchanan), who poses as a hairdresser to get into her boudoir. Ernst Lubitsch’s follow-up to The Love Parade shows even more musical invention, and presents MacDonald at her haughtily sexy best. THE SMILING LIEUTENANT Maurice Chevalier’s randy Viennese lieutenant is enamored of Claudette Colbert’s freethinking, all-girl-orchestra-leading cutie. Yet complications ensue when the sexually repressed princess (newcomer Miriam Hopkins) of the fictional kingdom of Flausenthurm sets her sights on him. Ernst Lubitsch’s The Smiling Lieutenant is a delightful showcase for its rising female stars, who are never more charming than when Colbert tunefully instructs Hopkins, “Jazz Up Your Lingerie.” ONE HOUR WITH YOU Ernst Lubitsch reunites Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, this time as a seemingly blissful couple whose marriage hits the skids when her flirtatious school chum comes on to her husband a bit too strong. Necking in the park at nighttime, husbands and wives having casual dalliances, and a butler telling his master, “I did so want to see you in tights!”: Lubitsch’s final pre-Code musical is one of his sauciest escapades.

Release: August 21, 2018

$7.99

Description

Deceased turn-of-the-century playboy Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) presents himself to the outer offices of Hades, where he asks a bemused Satan for permission to enter through the gates of hell. Though the devil doubts that Henry’s sins qualify him for eternal damnation, Henry proceeds to recount a lifetime of wooing and pursuing women, his long, happy marriage to Martha (Gene Tierney) notwithstanding. Ernst Lubitsch’s Heaven Can Wait, nominated for Academy Awards for best picture and director, is an enduring classic that showcases his trademark blend of wit, urbanity, and grace. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New 4K digital restoration by Twentieth Century Fox and the Academy Film Archive in collaboration with The Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • Conversation from 2005 between film critics Molly Haskell and Andrew Sarris • Creativity with Bill Moyers: A Portrait of Samson Raphaelson (1982), a thirty-minute program exploring the screenwriter’s life and career • Audio seminar with Raphaelson and film critic Richard Corliss recorded at the Museum of Modern Art in 1977 • Home recordings of director Ernst Lubitsch playing the piano • Trailer • PLUS: An essay by film scholar William Paul

Release: March 28, 2023

$6.99

Description

To prevent his inheritance from going to his greedy family, a dying steel tycoon (Richard Bennett) chooses eight random strangers and gives them each one million bucks. Among those chosen are an entertainer (W.C. Fields) who uses the money to clear bad drivers from the road, a Marine (Gary Cooper) who believes the check is an April Fool’s Day prank, and an office clerk (Charles Laughton) who finally sees an opportunity to quit his job. The unexpected windfalls bring joy—or tragedy—to the recipients. The anthology film If I Had a Million rounds up a veritable who’s-who of Hollywood filmmaking luminaries (including Ernst Lubitsch, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone, Stephen Roberts, Norman Z. McLeod, William A. Seiter and Norman Taurog) and turns them loose for a zany, star-studded Pre-Code classic that bristles with imagination and wit. Special Features: • NEW Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Allan Arkush and Film Historian/Filmmaker Daniel Kremer • Theatrical Trailer • Optional English Subtitles

Release: August 18, 2020

$6.99

Description

The Terror: Infamy, chronicles a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese American community.

Release: December 22, 2020

$6.99

Description

Tell bickering Budapest gift-shop workers Alfred and Klara that they love each other and they might call you crazy. No lover can compare to the romantic, secret pen pal each knows only as Dear Friend. What Alfred and Klara dont know, of course, is that they are each others Dear Friend. In the third of their four luminous screen pairings, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart star in this valentine to love wrapped in the ribbon of director Ernst Lubitsch s trademark touch wit instead of buffoonery, sentiment instead of sentimentality, affection instead of attitude. As enchanting today as it was yesterday, The Shop Around the Corner will cheerfully reward your patronage.

Release: August 27, 2013

$7.99

Description

As nervy as it is hilarious, this screwball masterpiece from Ernst Lubitsch (Trouble in Paradise) stars Jack Benny (The Jack Benny Program) and, in her final screen appearance, Carole Lombard (My Man Godfrey) as husband-and-wife thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who become caught up in a dangerous spy plot. TO BE OR NOT TO BE is a Hollywood film of the boldest black humor, which went into production soon after the U.S. entered World War II. Lubitsch manages to brilliantly balance political satire, romance, slapstick, and urgent wartime suspense in a comic high-wire act that has never been equaled.

Release: April 14, 2026

$7.99

Description

Ernst Lubitsch’s famed touch is on exquisite display in this sexy pre-Code jewel, glittering with witty innuendo and elegant comic invention. It’s love at first swindle when high-society thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and pickpocket Lily Vautier (Miriam Hopkins) cross paths amid the canals of Venice while attempting to con each other—and then it’s off to Paris, where the pair meet their match in their latest mark, the très chic Madame Colet (Kay Francis), whose fabulous fortune is exceeded only by her powers of seduction. With its delightfully risqué dialogue, swoonworthy couture, and high deco style, Trouble in Paradise is a pinnacle of comic-romantic sophistication that fizzes like the finest champagne. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation Audio commentary featuring Scott Eyman, biographer of director Ernst Lubitsch Introduction by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich New video essay by critic David Cairns English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme Top Similar From the Brand Questions Reviews Trouble in Paradise (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Trouble in Paradise (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Release: April 14, 2026

$7.99

Description

Ernst Lubitsch’s famed touch is on exquisite display in this sexy pre-Code jewel, glittering with witty innuendo and elegant comic invention. It’s love at first swindle when high-society thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and pickpocket Lily Vautier (Miriam Hopkins) cross paths amid the canals of Venice while attempting to con each other—and then it’s off to Paris, where the pair meet their match in their latest mark, the très chic Madame Colet (Kay Francis), whose fabulous fortune is exceeded only by her powers of seduction. With its delightfully risqué dialogue, swoonworthy couture, and high deco style, Trouble in Paradise is a pinnacle of comic-romantic sophistication that fizzes like the finest champagne. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Audio commentary featuring Scott Eyman, biographer of director Ernst Lubitsch Introduction by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich New video essay by critic David Cairns English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme Top Similar From the Brand Questions Reviews Trouble in Paradise (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD] Trouble in Paradise (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD]