Main Cast: Florence Vidor, Monte Blue, Marie Prevost, Creighton Hale, Adolphe Menjou
Release Year: 1924
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Viennese doctor Monte Blue is madly in love with his wife Florence Vidor--so much so that many suspect that they aren't married at all! Vidor's best friend Marie Prevost is an incurable coquette; Marie's divorce-bound husband Adolphe Menjou hires detective Harry Myers to keep tabs on his wife. Inevitably, Prevost meets and flirts with the true-blue Blue. Meanwhile, Blue's lecherous partner Creighton Hale sets his sights on innocent Vidor. Thanks to the misunderstandings of detective Myers, both Blue and Vidor are suspected of infidelity, but all ends well as doctor and wife are reunited and Prevost ends up with her male counterpart Hale. The first of Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated sex farces, The Marriage Circle was reportedly Lubitsch's favorite film; he would remake it (and improve upon it tenfold) in 1932 as the sprightly musical One Hour With You, with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Both original and remake were based on Only a Dream, a play by Lothar Schmidt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
In its time, The Marriage Circle was a saucy, slightly racy sex-farce -- and something of a revelation coming from Ernst Lubitsch who, up to that time, had specialized in lush historical dramas. Seen today, it's a fascinating artifact of a by-gone era, representing at least two familiar figures in their early screen incarnations: Monte Blue in his days as a leading man and Adolphe Menjou as a jealous husband. But it also offers Florence Vidor, wife of King Vidor (and the more successful of the two at the time) and Marie Prevost in their time. And the "Lubitsch Touch," which seems to have sprung fully formed from the frames of this frothy little romantic trifle, which began a two-decade-plus string of ever-finer romantic comedies from the director. Here's the original, not just for the better-known remake One Hour With You, but also much of his work right up through Cluny Brown in 1946. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Ernst Lubitsch - Director, Susan Hall - Composer (Music Score), Esdras Hartley - Production Designer, Charles Van Enger - Cinematographer, Ernst Lubitsch - Producer, Paul Bern - Screenwriter, Lothar Schmidt - Play Author
The Marriage Circle is a 1924 film by Ernst Lubitsch. It is based on the play Only a Dream by Lothar Schmidt. It was also remade in 1932 by Lubitsch and George Cukor as One Hour With You set in Paris. The "circle" of the title refers to the ring of infidelities (suspected and otherwise) central to the plot.
The first of Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated sex farces, The Marriage Circle was reportedly Lubitsch's favorite film; he would remake it (and improve upon it tenfold) in 1932 as the sprightly musical One Hour With You, with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Both original and remake were based on Only a Dream, a play by Lothar Schmidt.
The film is known by a number fo different names around the world. It is also known as Avioliiton ilveilyä in Finland, Comédiennes in France, Die Ehe im Kreise in Germany, Gyro apo ton gamon in Greece, Los peligros del Flirt in Spain, Matrimonio in quattro in Italy.
Fräulein Seifenschaum ·Aufs Eis Geführt ·Blindekuh ·Zucker Und Zimmt ·Der Erste Patient ·Der Letzte Anzug ·Der Kraftmeier ·Wo Ist Mein Schatz? ·Schuhpalast Pinkus ·Der Gemischte Frauenchor ·Das Schönste Geschenk ·Der G.m.b.H. Tenor ·Leutnant auf Befehl ·Seine Neue Nase ·Ossis Tagebuch ·Der Blusenkönig ·Wenn Vier Dasselbe Tun ·Das Fidele Gefängnis ·Prinz Sami ·Der Rodelkavalier ·Der Fall Rosentopf ·Ich Möchte Kein Mann Sein ·Das Mädel Vom Ballet ·Meyer Aus Berlin ·Das Schwabenmädel ·Kohlhiesels Töchter ·Romeo Und Julia Im Schnee ·If I Had A Million(segment "The Clerk")
