Vintage comedies at LACMA

LACMA’s “Laughter in Paradise: the American Comedies of Ernst Lubitsch” film series continues this weekend with screenings of four of the comedy director’s best movies.

Famed for his elegant, sophisticated comedies, the Berlin-born director was known for imparting a special zest that came to be called “the Lubitsch touch.” Acclaimed comedy director Billy Wilder called Lubitsch “the most elegant of screen magicians.”

Friday night’s first offering is “Design for Living” (1933), the earliest screwball comedy,  starring Gary Cooper and Frederic March as a pair of men in Paris vying for the love of the same girl. Next comes “The Smiling Lieutenant” (1931), an Oscar nominated musical with Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert.

On Saturday, moviegoers can catch “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940), starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as quarreling co-workers in prewar Budapest who, without knowing it, are busy penning anonymous love letters to each other.  “Among the greatest of films,” film historian and critic David Thomson says. Following that is “Angel” (1937) starring Marlene Dietrich as a bored wife who has a quick affair with a man who turns out to be her husband’s old friend.

Check out descriptions and screen times at LACMA’s site, here.

Posted 7/14/10