Thanks to the 4K Vintage Movie Archive there's a great, restored version of this on YouTube.
And it's very funny and very interesting cinematically. Lubitsch had learned a lot about staging, timing and design from the legendary theatre director Max Reinhardt which contributes to his blocking of scenes with multiple charters - the chase of Hermann Thimig by forty maidens, the dance of the dolls. In fact that chase may have been an influence on Keaton's Seven Chances - must watch that next - and itself would have prompted the topless women chase in The Meaning of Life. But Lubitsch is also doing interesting things cinematically like the multiple exposures and semi-transparent dream scene, and the dollmaker's hair changing colour.
But the centre of the film is the joyous Ossi Oswalda (a nickname which Lubitsch gave her) who gives a gleeful and very funny performance pretending to be her own mechanical doll. Lubitsch slyly digs into the male-female relationship through this setup.
The set designs by frequent collaborator Kurt Richter (you can tell I'm reading a book on Lubitsch) are really sweet - beautifully set up when Lubitsch himself in the film's opening, builds a mini set and populates it with dolls which then turn into live action - as are the pantomime horses.
It's also quite cheeky, particularly in behaviour of apprentice Gerhard Ritterband, for example kissing the 'doll' then kissing her mother as well 'just to keep things even'.
Written by Lubitsch and another frequent collaborator Hans Kräly, photographed by Theodor Sparkul and Kurt Waschneck. With Max Kronert, Victor Janson (doll maker), Jakob Tiedker (the abbot, whose dance with Ossi is hilarious).
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