How Would Lubitsch Do It?

S4E06b - Trouble in Paradise [1932] with Willa Ross

Willa Ross returns to further discuss TROUBLE IN PARADISE! In this episode, fierce debates are had about the film’s position on the spectrum between idealism and cynicism, Lubitsch’s sense of rhythm, the film’s political angles in the context of the great depression, the famous clock scene, the way in which sensory deprivation allows us to participate in the creation of artistic meaning, and much more!
Edited by Rylee Cronin
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Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
NEXT WEEK:
Columbia University professor and author Krin Gabbard joins us to discuss yet more TROUBLE IN PARADISE!
WORKS CITED:
MPAA Production Code notes on TROUBLE IN PARADISE. courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library.
Pre-Code Lubitsch (from THE DISSOLVE) by Kim Morgan

S4E06a - Larceny in 1932: Trouble in Paradise and Jewel Robbery with Tanya Goldman

In the first of three episodes in on TROUBLE IN PARADISE, Tanya Goldman joins us to discuss two key works in the Gentleman Thief subgenre - the aforementioned TROUBLE IN PARADISE as well as William Dieterle’s JEWEL ROBBERY! We cover the work of William Powell, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, and Miriam Hopkins, the differing ways in which each film deals with morality and ethics in the midst of all the pre-code transgressions, the love language of thievery, and plenty else!
Edited by Griffin Sheel
We have a Discord!
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
NEXT WEEK:
Will Ross returns to further discuss TROUBLE IN PARADISE. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
Flawless: Kay Francis’ Jewel Heist Comedies in 'Crooked Marquee' by Julia Sirmons

S4E05.5 - Love Me Tonight [1932] and Rhythm in Early Sound Film with Lea Jacobs

University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Emerita Lea Jacobs joins us for a discussion of film rhythm in the early sound era. We discuss the various ways films can deal with on-set singing and musical numbers, the incredibly complex and constrictive ways in with early sound films were constrained when it came to everything from blocking and camera placement to editing, Mamoulian and Lubitsch’s respective uses of music as rhythmic devices, and the difficulties that audio revisionism engenders.
Throughout this episode, we’ll be referencing various videos that are available at the bottom of these shownotes.
Edited by Gloria Mercer
We have a Discord!
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
NEXT WEEK:
Tanya Goldman joins us to discuss TROUBLE IN PARADISE as well as JEWEL ROBBERY. For details as to where to find these films, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
Film Rhythm After Sound by Lea Jacobs

S4E05 - One Hour with You [1932] with Matt Severson

In this very special episode, we visit Matt Severson on-location at the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California to discuss the glorious pre-code adultery musical ONE HOUR WITH YOU! In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss the film’s monumental horniness, the ways in which Lubitsch & company were allowed to get said horniness past the censors, the musical styles on display, the film’s status as a remake of THE MARRAIGE CIRCLE, the various fourth-wall breaking moments, the rare tinted cut of the film, Hans Dreier’s gorgeous art deco production design, and much more. Oh, that Mitzi!
Edited by Griffin Sheel
Recorded by Anna Citak-Scott at the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California.
We have a Discord!
NEXT WEEK:
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Emerita Lea Jacobs joins us to discuss LOVE ME TONIGHT as well as film rhythm in the early sound era. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
Eclipse Series essay on One Hour With You by Michael Koresky
MPAA. Production Code Administration Records for One Hour With You courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library

S4E04 - The Man I Killed aka Broken Lullaby [1932] with Will Sloan

Film writer and podcaster Will Sloan joins us to discuss THE MAN I KILLED (BROKEN LULLABY), Lubitsch’s heartfelt 1932 pacifist screed and his only straight-ahead drama of the sound era.
We cover the film’s radical interwar politics, its portrayal of grief, the many different performance styles on display, the haunting and twisted ending, national post-WWI guilt, the film’s imperfections (which we love), our fantasy recasting of Philips Holmes, and much more.
Edited by Sophia Yoon.
We have a Discord!
NEXT WEEK:
Matt Severson returns to discuss ONE HOUR WITH YOU. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.

S4E03 - The Smiling Lieutenant [1931] with Jonathan Mackris

UC Berkeley PHD student Jonathan Mackris joins us to discuss Lubitsch’s 1931 musical THE SMILING LIEUTENANT! In this episode, we cover Maurice Chevalier’s career and charisma, the film’s mildly troubled production, the entrance of the highly consequential Samson Raphaelson to the Lubitsch stable of collaborators, Lubitsch’s increasingly ambitious use of montage, the questionable musical abilities of various lead characters, and much more.
Edited by Rylee Cronin.
We have a Discord!
NEXT WEEK:
Will Sloan joins us to discuss THE MAN I KILLED (aka BROKEN LULLABY.) For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
Eclipse Series essay on The Smiling Lieutenant by Michael Koresky
Billy Wilder’s Explanation of the Lubitsch Touch
Romantic Comedy in Hollywood by James Harvey

S4E02 - Monte Carlo [1930] and Trash Cinema with Katharine Coldiron

Katharine Coldiron, author of Junk Film: Why Bad Movies Matter, joins us to discuss Ernst Lubitsch’s 1930 musical MONTE CARLO. Our wide-ranging conversation covers the evolution of Lubitsch’s formal technique in the early sound era, the film’s extremely naughty lyrical content, and its gentle satire of class and gender roles. In the second half of the episode, we move on to a discussion of “junk movies”: films which, despite a distinct lack of competence on the part of their creators, achieve something of value.
Edited by Sophia Yoon
We have a Discord!
NEXT WEEK:
Jonathan Mackris joins us to discuss THE SMILING LIEUTENANT. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
Eclipse Series Essay on Monte Carlo by Michael Koresky
Junk Film by Katharine Coldiron
Anti-Masterpieces by Will Ross
After Last Season (Film Formally Podcast)
Street Fighter: The Movie (The Hit Factory Podcast feat. Devan Scott)

S4E01 - The Love Parade [1929] with Jennifer Fleeger

Ursinus College professor Jennifer Fleeger joins us to discuss THE LOVE PARADE. In this episode, we cover the operetta form, the divergent singing styles of Jeanette Macdonald and Maurice Chevalier, how those styles interact with the recording technology of the time, as well as this film’s fascinating and sometimes uneasy ways of dealing with both class and gender roles.
Edited by Griffin Sheel.
NEXT WEEK:
Katharine Coldiron joins us to discuss MONTE CARLO. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
The MPAA Production Come Administration Records for THE LOVE PARADE courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library
Paris and the Musical: The City of Lights on Stage and Screen edited by Olaf Jubin
Eclipse Series: Lubitsch Musicals essay on The Love Parade by Michael Koresky
Pre-Code.com’s list of Essential Pre-Code Hollywood Films
Sound American by Jennifer Fleeger
Mismatched Women: The Siren Song Through the Machine by Jennifer Fleeger
Media Ventriloquism by Jennifer Fleeger

S4E00 - Early Hollywood Camera Movement with Patrick Keating

How Would Lubitsch Do It returns for a fourth season! It’s an exciting time for Ernst Lubitsch and, therefore, the podcast: this season, we’ll be covering the years between the introduction of synchronized sound in Hollywood and the establishment of the Production Code Administration in 1934. Ahead of us lie the years of Lubitsch’s greatest influence in Hollywood: by the end of this season, he’ll have gone from a prominent silent film director to being the first (and only!) director to have ever been given the reins of a major Hollywood studio. In between lie many of his greatest and most celebrated works.
Aside from our film-by-film coverage of Lubitsch’s work in this period, this season will feature a number of experts in the field of early sound cinema who have lent their time and knowledge so as to help paint a clearer picture of the evolving state of both technology and artistry in Hollywood cinema throughout this era.
The first of these guests is Patrick Keating, professor of Communication at Trinity University and author of Hollywood Lighting from the Silent Era to Film Noir as well as The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood, among others. In this episode, Patrick and I discuss the history and ideology of early camera movement: why do directors choose to move, and how do they theorize the motivations behind this movement? We also discuss the dimensions of visible labor behind camera operation, the many differences between dollies, cranes, gimbals, and steadicams, aspect ratio shifts, and the many misconceptions floating around regarding early film camera movement.
Edited by Griffin Sheel.
NEXT WEEK:
Ursinus College professor Jennifer Fleeger joins us to discuss THE LOVE PARADE. For details as to where to find this film, check out our resources page.
WORKS CITED:
Hollywood Lighting from the Silent Era to Film Noir by Patrick Keating
The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood by Patrick Keating

S3E09 - Eternal Love (1929) with Bram Ruiter

In our Season 3 finale, returning guest Bram Ruiter joins us to discuss the final film Ernst Lubitsch ever directed that didn’t involved on-set sound recording: ETERNAL LOVE! We discuss the film’s unusual status as a hybrid silent/sound picture, the strange story of how this film was lost and then discovered, John Barrymore’s dipsomaniacal tendencies, and the film’s terrific ending amidst long tangents in which break down how, exactly, one might deign to fix this rickety screenplay.
Edited by Will Ross.
Thanks to the guests who lent their time and support to this season: Peter Labuza, Tim Brayton, Molly Rasberry, Sarah Shachat, James Penco, Will Ross, Dave Kehr, Julia Sirmons, David Neary, David Cairns, and Bram Ruiter.
Our editors, Griffin Sheel, Gloria Mercer, and Will Ross, and our sound recordist, Anna Citak-Scott.
And others who lent valuable counsel and support: William Paul, the MOMA, Jose Arroyo, Matt Severson, the Margaret Herrick Library, Dara Jaffe, Scott Eyman, Patrick Keating, Paul Cuff, and many others.
We have a Discord!
NEXT SEASON:
We return on October 31st with Season 4, in which the movies begin to talk! Yes, we’re entering the sound era as well as the height of Lubitsch’s influence in Hollywood!