That Uncertain Feeling (1941 Ernst Lubitsch)

The Lubitsch that seems unfairly neglected is like music, with its rhythms and sporadic outbursts of 'Keeks!', 'Phooey!' and the like. And seems only to exist in fuzzy, public domain prints, a great shame as George Barnes' lighting is clearly beautiful, in Alexander Golitzen's sets. Maybe one of the French or Spanish releases is better. Where's Criterion...?

I loved the Amazon reviewer who said "Too many one-room scenes with characters opening and closing doors" thus missing one of the delightful features of a Lubitsch comedy, which are always focusing on doorways.

"Really darling, you talk as if you've never been in a meadow."

"Was it a dull party?"
"No, I'd say she was about your size."

Victorien Sardou and Emilie deNajac's play 'Divorçons' (1883) was adapted by Walter Reisch and screenwritten by Donald Ogden Stewart who found fame mainly through adapting the work of others (won Oscar for the Philadelphia Story) - he emigrated to England in the 1950s Communist witch hunt, and died here. It was previously filmed by Lubitsch as Kiss Me Again (unfortunately no known prints exist) in 1925, with Marie Prevost, Monte Blue and Clara Bow. It's an independent Sol Lesser production,

Great cast: Melvyn Douglas, Merle Oberon, Burgess Meredith, Alan Mowbray, Sig Ruman, Harry Davenport, Eve Arden (who basically sets her character for the next 40 years (she was in Grease - not that that's enough of a reason to watch it), Olive Blakeney.

Hard not to imagine Lubitsch acting out the parts for everybody. That scene where Douglas confronts Meredith - they're so polite to one another. It's another Lubitsch trademark isn't it, if you think the beard scene in To Be Or Not To Be or the confrontation over the swords in The Merry Widow.

Brilliant Lubitsch touch (on three) when he has to slap his wife. Notice shots of closed doors / action happening off-screen. Inspired use of "Keeks!" Many sour-faced photos of Meredith (one being put out of the bedroom like it's a cat). Douglas / Meredith funny. Witty. Photographed by George Barnes with a lovely rain pattern on a bed. Phooey!

P.S. "Keeks!" has since become a much used general purpose expression in this house.