Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
(1938)
80 or 83-84 mins | Comedy | 18 March 1938
Director:
Ernst LubitschWriters:
Charles Brackett, Billy WilderProducer:
Ernst LubitschCinematographer:
Leo ToverEditor:
William SheaProduction Designers:
Hans Dreier, Robert UsherProduction Company:
Paramount Pictures, Inc.A news item in AC notes that Charles Schoenbaum took over photography when Leo Tover was stricken with influenza. Copyright records indicate that Marlene Dietrich acted as a guide for Eric Locke and crew in Vienna, where they shot 30,000 feet of film, some of which are used in the film. In addition, noted French director Sacha Guitry appears in one scene. Composer Werner R. Heymann's name is spelled "Werner Heyman" in the onscreen credits. A previous film based on the same source was released by Paramount in 1923 as Bluebeard's 8th Wife starring Gloria Swanson (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30 ; F2.0497). According to a modern source, Ernst Lubitsch promised the part of "Nicole" to Claudette Colbert as early as 1932, during production of DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (see ... More Less
A news item in AC notes that Charles Schoenbaum took over photography when Leo Tover was stricken with influenza. Copyright records indicate that Marlene Dietrich acted as a guide for Eric Locke and crew in Vienna, where they shot 30,000 feet of film, some of which are used in the film. In addition, noted French director Sacha Guitry appears in one scene. Composer Werner R. Heymann's name is spelled "Werner Heyman" in the onscreen credits. A previous film based on the same source was released by Paramount in 1923 as Bluebeard's 8th Wife starring Gloria Swanson (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30 ; F2.0497). According to a modern source, Ernst Lubitsch promised the part of "Nicole" to Claudette Colbert as early as 1932, during production of DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (see below). More Less
Nicole De Loiselle meets American millionaire Michael Brandon while shopping in a store on the French Riviera. She buys the bottoms and he buys the tops of the same suit of pajamas, while she gives him tips on how to cure insomnia by spelling Czechoslovakia backwards. Michael continues to have insomnia, however, and demands to change his suite at the hotel. The managers show him a room but the Marquis De Loiselle is residing there. The marquis tries to convince Michael to go in on a deal with him, but Michael refuses until he recognizes the pajama bottoms and the marquis identifies himself as Nicole's father. Michael agrees to buy a Louis XIV bathtub from the penniless marquis as a gesture of good will and informs the marquis he wishes to marry his daughter. Michael later proposes to Nicole while she is at the beach with her friend Albert De Regnier, but she refuses because he seems arrogant. Michael then sends an apology and an invitation to dinner and they fall in love that evening. At her engagement party, however, Nicole discovers that Michael had been married seven times previously, and each time had arranged a $50,000 per year divorce settlement in a pre-nuptial agreement. Nicole furiously calls off the wedding, but then agrees to marry for a $100,000 settlement. They never consummate the marriage and live in separate rooms, despite attempts by Michael to bridge the gap. Nicole finally wears down Michael's resistance by pretending to have an affair with Albert, and Michael agrees to a divorce. He commits himself to a sanitarium because Nicole completely broke his spirit, but ... + −
Nicole De Loiselle meets American millionaire Michael Brandon while shopping in a store on the French Riviera. She buys the bottoms and he buys the tops of the same suit of pajamas, while she gives him tips on how to cure insomnia by spelling Czechoslovakia backwards. Michael continues to have insomnia, however, and demands to change his suite at the hotel. The managers show him a room but the Marquis De Loiselle is residing there. The marquis tries to convince Michael to go in on a deal with him, but Michael refuses until he recognizes the pajama bottoms and the marquis identifies himself as Nicole's father. Michael agrees to buy a Louis XIV bathtub from the penniless marquis as a gesture of good will and informs the marquis he wishes to marry his daughter. Michael later proposes to Nicole while she is at the beach with her friend Albert De Regnier, but she refuses because he seems arrogant. Michael then sends an apology and an invitation to dinner and they fall in love that evening. At her engagement party, however, Nicole discovers that Michael had been married seven times previously, and each time had arranged a $50,000 per year divorce settlement in a pre-nuptial agreement. Nicole furiously calls off the wedding, but then agrees to marry for a $100,000 settlement. They never consummate the marriage and live in separate rooms, despite attempts by Michael to bridge the gap. Nicole finally wears down Michael's resistance by pretending to have an affair with Albert, and Michael agrees to a divorce. He commits himself to a sanitarium because Nicole completely broke his spirit, but with their newfound wealth, the marquis buys the sanitarium and Nicole pledges her love to Michael. + −
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement AwardTOP SEARCHES
CASABLANCA
During World War II, Casablanca, Morocco is a waiting point for throngs of desperate refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. Exit visas, which are necessary to leave the country, are at ... >>
CITIZEN KANE
Seventy-year-old newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies in his palatial Florida home, Xanadu, after uttering the single word “Rosebud.” While watching a newsreel summarizing the years during which Kane ... >>
REAR WINDOW
Laid up with a broken leg during the height of summer, renowned New York magazine photographer L. B. “Jeff” Jeffries enters his last week of home confinement, bored and ... >>
RAGING BULL
In 1941, at a boxing match in Cleveland, Ohio, pandemonium breaks out when Jake La Motta, an up-and-coming young boxer, loses a decision to Jimmy Reeves, suffering his first ... >>
CITY LIGHTS
At an outdoor dedication ceremony, a tramp is discovered sleeping in the arms of a statue as it is being unveiled before a crowd. He is chased into ... >>