AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

gavin6942 A stern Russian woman (Greta Garbo) sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man (Melvyn Douglas) who represents everything she is supposed to detest.The way Soviet Russia is portrayed here is quite strange. We have Ninotchka saying an old man looks "sad" and should not be working, she has a strict adherence to custom and regulation. And censorship completely blocks out the letters of friends. While I do not think this is completely off-base, surely this is exaggerated. (Of course, in some ways, the situation was probably far worse.) I love that this has a Billy Wilder script. Wilder learned a lot from director Lubitsch and went on to direct some of the greatest films out there (I would argue that Wilder surpassed Lubitsch in greatness).We also get a great appearance (although all too small) of the legendary Bela Lugosi.

Jackson Booth-Millard From director Ernst Lubitsch (To Be or Not to Be, Heaven Can Wait), I had heard the leading actress name a few times, I didn't know much about her, especially not that she retired at the age of thirty five after only twenty eight films, and I was looking forward to this title I recognised from her career. Basically in Paris, France, three Russians, Iranov (Sig Ruman), Buljanov (Felix Bressart) and Kopalsky (Alexander Granach), are selling jewellery from the aristocracy that they confiscated during the 1917 Russian Revolution, and arriving they meet Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas) who is trying to retrieve her jewellery back for Russian Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire). But he corrupts the three men and convinces them to stay in Paris since they have become accustomed to their French surroundings, so special diplomatic agent Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova (Oscar nominated Greta Garbo) has been sent by the Soviet Union to make sure the sale goes ahead and bring the three men back to Russia. She is stern and non nonsense with her attitude, and for a while she has no time to mess around with pleasure rather than business, but after meeting Leon and being introduced more to the culture of the West she lightens up. Ninotchka and Leon slowly fall in love with each other, and this allows the three Russians to do a kindness for capitalism, and in the end the Russian agent leaves behind her work to have a relationship with the Count, and one of the three men protects that the other two were unfair to him, this is a joke. Also starring Bela Lugosi as Commissar Razinin and Gregory Gaye as Count Alexis Rakonin. Garbo gives a great performance as the first strict and then light-hearted Russian agent, and Douglas is likable as the charming man and love interest, I will confess that I could not understand the political stuff and I could not follow everything going on, but I did laugh when the jokes were simple and well made, the most funny material is during the café scene, and the love story is nice, so it was an fun sophisticated comedy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Writing, Original Story and Best Writing, Screenplay. Greta Garbo was number 5 on 100 Years, 100 Stars - Women, and she was number 44 on The World's Greatest Actor, the film was number 52 on 100 Years, 100 Laughs. Very good!

classicsoncall My only other experience of Garbo was in the 1925 silent film "The Joyless Street", a rather somber picture that featured her charisma with strong body language and facial expressiveness. Apparently the tag line 'Garbo Laughs' was meant to convey a change in character from her ensuing screen roles, but it takes a while to get there. It's only when her charmingly aggressive suitor (Melvyn Douglas) falls out of his chair that the stuffy Nina Ivanova Yakushova breaks character and reveals a human being underneath a commissar's clothing.The film is billed as a comedy, but it's not of the laugh out loud variety. The film delivers it's humor in the witty dialog between Garbo and Douglas, along with the calculated antics of the three apparatchiks Ninotchka has been sent to spy on and see that their mission is successful. I don't know if the title 'Envoy Extraordinaire" was a legitimate one, but Garbo takes it seriously, to the point of declining a railroad porter to take her bags, citing the 'social injustice' of it all. There are a handful of these ideological viewpoints woven into the script; another was Ninotchka's observation that as a capitalist, Douglas's Leon D'Algout was the product of a doomed culture.Personally, I enjoyed the film, though I had a sense that it started to drag at the ninety minute mark or so. The resolution of the romance between Ninotchka and Leon would have required the Russian comrade to defect so in that respect it seemed somewhat contrived. But not any more so than having the Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire) simply give away her jeweled fortune to entice her rival away from Paris.

SimonJack "Ninotchka" is one of the funniest movies ever made. But it's not a slapstick or screwball comedy. It is in the class of "It Happened One Night," "My Man Godfry," and "Holiday." The humor is in snappy dialog. The one-liners, subtle zingers, and satire poke fun mostly at Soviet Russia and communism. But it has occasional jabs at capitalism and western lifestyles – notably the idle rich. The movie is superb in all aspects, especially in the script, direction, settings and acting. All of the cast give top performances. Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas are the perfect match for some of the funniest repartee ever put on film. But, how Garbo (Ninotchka) could keep a straight face in those exchanges, one after another, is beyond me. I'll bet MGM had to do many retakes of some of her scenes. If not for her breaking down, then for the cracking up of Douglas (Leon) or others on the set and behind the camera. "Ninotchka" is one of the great comedy-romances for the ages. Young and old alike can enjoy it. But, from some of the comments I've read, it seems much of the humor is lost without a little knowledge of the time. So, I offer these tidbits to help set the stage and prepare viewers for a most enjoyable film. The time is the late 1930s. The story takes place mostly in Paris, moves to Moscow later, and ends in Istanbul. In 1939, all the world knows about Soviet Russia and many of its problems. It has been in the news since the communist takeover after the revolutions 20 years earlier. Joseph Stalin's five-year plan for recovery since 1922 was past its 15th year. So far, it had been an abysmal failure. His social programs had disrupted total populations. His collectivist farm program had failed miserably. Combined with drought and famine, the Russian people faced starvation.But that's not all. The Great Purge of 1936-38 had been in the news the past couple of years. It was Stalin's way to get rid of anyone who didn't agree with him or who might challenge his oppressive rule of Russia. The purge eradicated half a million Russian leaders. The press had covered the carefully staged mock trials in Moscow in that time. Many Russian communist and social leaders confessed to being traitors before they were sentenced to death or the gulags in Siberia. As all of that was going on and being reported from Russia, a number of former Czarist Russian royalty were living in exile around Europe, especially in Paris. Many stories and jokes circulated at that time about crown jewels and lost titles. Thus, the stage is set for "Ninotchka." With the large number of reviews posted up to this time, I wouldn't normally add my own. But, I think far too many people have missed the true depth of the satire and comedy in this great film. The IMDb Web site has a long list of witty dialog and exchanges from the film. But there are many more – and some real subtle zingers that I think many people miss. Here are a few to whet your appetite. In an early scene, Ninotchka explains why Soviet Russia is "peddling our precious possessions to the world at this time." She says, "Our next year's crop is in danger, and you know it. Unless we can get foreign currency to buy tractors, there'll not be enough bread for our people and you comrades." What a great example of skewered Soviet thinking. As if tractors could overcome a drought and famine. It's a great jab at the Soviets.Here's another one. Garbo looks over her hotel suite and says, "I'm ashamed to put a picture of Lenin in a room like this." And another, when her cohorts take her to the suite they reserved for her. "Which part of the room is mine?" Garbo asks. And a cohort replies, "You see, comrade, it's a little different here. They don't rent rooms in pieces. We had to take the whole suite." One more side-splitter was when her agents asked, "How are things in Moscow?" Garbo replied, "Very good. The last mass trial was a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians." A direct jab at Stalin's Great Purge. Douglas, meeting with the three agents early in the film, says that the jewels owned by the exiled duchess were confiscated by the Soviets. One of the agents quips, "I give you my word, they were confiscated legally." In a café later, a waiter seats Ninotchka and asks, "Now what shall it be?" She says, "Raw beets and carrots." He replies, "Madame, this is a restaurant, not a meadow." She next says, "Bring me something simple – I never think about food." The waiter asks, "If you don't think about food, what do you think about?" Ninotchka answers, "The future of the common people." And the waiter replies, "That's also a question of food." What a great running dialog!"Ninotchka" was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Garbo for best actress and the film as best picture. That year may have been the best year in motion picture history for the number of great films produced. But for that, "Ninotchka" likely would have won two or more Oscars. More than 40 full length movies competed for 1939 Oscar honors. Among the best of the year were "Gone With the Wind," "Stagecoach," Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "The Wizard of Oz," "Ninotchka," "Wuthering Heights," "Dark Victory," "Beau Geste," "Of Mice and Men," "Young Mr. Lincoln," "Gunga Din," "The Four Feathers," "Only Angels Have Wings," and "Bachelor Mother." Those top 15 films have a combined average viewer rating (on September 20, 2012) of 7.8. Has there been another year of more great movies than that?