Watch The Doll For Free

Wonderful Movie

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Blistering performances.

Taking a look at the Masters of Cinema Ernst Lubitsch box set,I discovered that a new score had been done for Die Puppe which was exclusively done for the collection,which led to me taking the doll out of the box.The plot:Fearing that his nephew Lancelot will be the last person to keep the family name alive, Baron Von Chanterelle tells Lancelot that he must get married to one of the villagers .Announcing to villagers that he wants his nephew to get married,Lancelot runs away from the village & Chanterelle to a monastery.After staying at the monastery for a few days with the monks,Lancelot spots a notice in the paper from Chanterelle,which says that if Lancelot gets married,he will receive a large sum of cash.Stuck between wanting to get his hands on the cash,but not wanting to get married,the monks decide to solve Lancelot's troubles,by suggesting that he gets married to a mechanical doll.View on the film:Before I get to the movie,I have to mention the excellent transfer that Masters of Cinema have done for the title,with the new score by Bernard Wrigley really capturing the warped fairy tale atmosphere of the flick.Crossing the sex Comedy & Fantasy genres over in their loose adaptation of A.E. Willner's operetta,the screenplay by co- writer/(along with E.T.A. Hoffmann & Hanns Kräly) cameoing actor/ director Ernst Lubitsch strikes a superb balance between surprisingly kinky shades with charming flights of Fantasy,as Lancelot's attempts to pass the "doll" off as his wife,leads to Lancelot finding out that a woman can't be treated like a wind-up toy,whilst the title dips into the off- beat,as Lancelot tries to find the right button combo to make the doll do his bidding.Setting the mood with the opening of a pop-up picture book, Ernst Lubitsch and cinematographers Theodor Sparkuhl & Kurt Waschneck give the movie a delightful warped children's fairy tale book appearance,with monks,dance moves and growing/receding hair popping out of the screen.Along with the surreal splashes,Lubitsch also displays an expert eye in using different tints,with the rusty tint used for scenes with Lancelot and the "doll" giving the flick a metallic shine,whilst the monastery is covered in a worn-out green.Searching desperately for a solution to getting hold of Chanterelle's cash, Hermann Thimig gives a wonderful performance as Lancelot,with Thimig keeping Lancelot away from being a slime-ball,by showing a real sense of innocent surprise at Chanterelle's sudden demands.Given the challenge of impersonating a doll, Ossi Oswalda gives an extraordinary performance as Ossi,thanks to Oswalda revealing expert comic timing in Ossi's sudden "robotic" movements,whilst making sure that the eyes of Ossi remain lit up & soulful,as Lancelot soon discovers that this "doll" is a women not to be put back in the play box.

"The Doll" is a delightful feature—the best I've seen of director Ernst Lubitsch's German films. The deliberately artificial and often theatrical settings, flat backdrops, fake trees and people in horse costumes included, by Kurt Richter saliently add to the picture's enchantment and fairytale-like narrative. "The Doll" is similar in this approach to Maurice Tourneur's 1918 films "The Bluebird" and "Prunella". Like the "Bluebird", "The Doll" has a few moments that seem reminiscent of the feéries of early cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, such as the moon's facial expressions and the stop-motion animation to change the doll maker's hair. Additionally, artificial theatricality was also adopted for "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), although in a very different way. Lubitsch begins the film well by appearing in front of the camera to introduce and arrange the mise-en-scène in miniature, a scene that then fades to the actual set and beginning of the story proper.In the film, the baron's nephew doesn't want to marry a woman, so he purchases what he believes is a life-size doll for his wife. Meanwhile, a real woman, the doll maker's daughter, is pretending to be that doll to hide that the doll maker's apprentice broke the doll that was based on her appearance. So, the nephew thinks he's fooling everyone, when he's the one being fooled. It's a simple narrative, briskly plotted, and very well enacted. The inherit sexism isn't lost on Lubitsch either, as a humorous advertisement offers the doll maker's product to widowers and misogynists alike. Additionally, there are a few light sex jokes throughout. Ossi Oswalda is wonderful, cute and funny, with her various expressions and movements, including the dancing, as she plays the character masquerading as a lifeless doll. Her performance significantly helps make this photoplay entertaining. The slapstick and subplot antics between the wacky-looking doll maker and his young apprentice are even amusing and appreciated.Dancing and a comedy chase make their way into this and other Lubitsch films. Moreover, the themes of mistaken identity or masquerading as acting and doubles underlie the humor of several Lubitsch comedies, in Germany and America. His three earliest comedies that I've seen ("The Merry Jail", "I Don't Want to Be a Man" and "The Oyster Princess") all play with these ideas in different ways, with characters pretending to be someone else. The girl isn't only doubled as a doll; her image is literally doubled photographically during a dream scene. Moreover, the theme of fakery extends further in "The Doll": the dolls are fake, a real woman fakes being one of them, which is supported by the fake appearance of much of the film's production design. The entire production coalesces to firmly establish the film's world as fantasy. The sets and designs of Lubitsch's German films seem to have always been impressive, but in some of those films, it feels that they overwhelm their plays, or that the narratives and characters were never equal to the grand décors, but in "The Doll", it all fits together.

People speak of the Lubitsch Touch first showing up in THE OYSTER PRINCESS, but that movie always struck me me as a a good romantic comedy, dimmed by changes in fashion, creaking a bit in age.But this movie is the real thing: a silly story told with much flair and constant surprises. It begins with Lubitsch showing you a model of the set, like Penn and Teller showing you how they do the cup-and-ball trick, followed by a show that dazzles you: pantomime horses, venal monks and a little bit of E.T.A. Hoffman all fall under the thrall of Lubitsch and all of them, and the audience too, end up with smiles on their faces.This movie is too good to more than hint at its wonders. If you have never seen a silent feature, see this one.

"Die Puppe" aka "The Doll" ranks with "The Oyster Princess" as perhaps Lubitsch's most sublime film made during his German period. Both films are superior in many respects to the well-known but pallid historical drama, "Madame duBarry" aka "Passion" (also made in 1919). Lubitsch himself felt that way. In a letter he once submitted to his biographer Herman G. Weinberg, Lubitsch considered "Die Puppe" and "Oyster Princess" as his most outstanding comedies produced in Germany before he departed for Hollywood to make "Rosita".An early, entrancing example of what Lubitsch would become years later, "Die Puppe" is a supremely funny and delightful silent burlesque, filled with the master's light, witty, and graceful touch. The setting is frothy and artificial and it anticipates Lubitsch's enchanting fairy tale musicals of the sound era."Die Puppe" is introduced by Lubitsch himself with an artificial cardboard. It is a fairy tale about of a young prince named Lancelot(Hermann Thimig) who flees from his uncle Baron von Chanterelle(Max Kronert) to avoid a marriage. He settles in a monastery. There, he meets several monks who persuade him to marry a human-like mechanical doll and give them his uncle's dowry. The doll-maker Hilarius (Victor Janson) agrees to Lancelot's interest in his newest doll, an exact replica of Hilarius' daughter Ossi (played by Ossi Oswalda herself). But there is a problem: The doll-maker's young apprentice (Gerhard Ritterband) accidentally breaks the arm of the doll and now it is up to Hilarius' daughter Ossi to impersonate the doll in order to cover it up. Lancelot takes the doll/Ossi to his uncle's castle, where some of Lubitsch's most inventive gags occur as Lancelot mistakes real Ossi for the doll. He actually falls in love with the doll/Ossi. And the wedding scenes alone are some of the funniest moments ever filmed. If you are a fan of Lubitsch, "Die Puppe" is an essential viewing.