That Lady in Ermine ** (1948, Betty Grable, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Cesar Romero, Walter Abel, Reginald Gardiner, Virginia Campbell) – Classic Movie Review 11,774

Cluny Brown (1946) is the last film that Ernst Lubitsch completed before his death on 30 November 1947 at the age of 55. His final film, the American Technicolor musical film That Lady in Ermine was completed by Otto Preminger and released posthumously in 1948. It stars Betty Grable, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Cesar Romero.

That Lady in Ermine tells the tale of a fantastic romance between Colonel Ladislas Teglas (Douglas Fairbanks Jnr), a Hungarian hussars cavalryman (in whose dream-world much of the picture takes place), and the noblewoman, the Countess Angelina (Betty Grable), he loves. Angelina, the ruler of Bergamo in southeastern Europe, marries baron Mario (Cesar Romero), in 1861. But Mario flees when their castle is threatened by Teglas’s Hungarian hussars on their wedding night.

Director Lubitsch’s death part way through filming his last and least-remembered movie left an uncredited Otto Preminger to pick up the pieces, and the end result is an unfortunate footnote to one of Hollywood’s most extraordinary talents.

A sterling cast and a witty script (courtesy of Lubitsch regular collaborator Samson Raphaelson) fight a rearguard action against the pompous and heavy-handed direction of Preminger in what would probably have been a light and sparkling production had the original director lived. Fairbanks Jr opined that Preminger ‘ruined everything, no sense of humour, no fun, everything light in the script was squeezed out.’

Friedrich Hollaender and Leo Robin compose the five musical numbers performed in the film. They were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for ‘This is the Moment’. But ‘Buttons and Bows’ from The Paleface won.

20th Century Fox’s musical romantic comedy is based on the 1919 operetta Die Frau im Hermelin [The Lady in Ermine] by Rudoph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch, and this movie is a remake of the 1930 Bride of the Regiment with Vivienne Segal and Walter Pidgeon.

Lubitsch died of a heart attack after only eight days of filming, but has sole credit as director. Preminger stipulated this ‘as a mark of respect and admiration for the departed master’.

On leaving Lubitsch’s funeral, William Wyler said: ‘No more Lubitsch’ and Billy Wilder replied: ‘Worse than that, no more Lubitsch pictures.’

The cast are Betty Grable as Francesca/ Angelina, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Colonel Teglas/ The Duke, Cesar Romero as Mario, Harry Davenport as Luigi, Walter Abel as Major Horvath/ Benvenuto, Reginald Gardiner as Alberto, Virginia Campbell as Theresa, Harry Cording as Orlando, Whit Bissell, Lester Allen, Mary Bear, David Bond, Harry Carter, Harry Cording, Jack George, Don Haggerty, Joe Haworth, Ray Hyde, Edmund MacDonald, Belle Mitchell, Mayo Newhall, John Parrish, Francis Pierlot, Thayer Roberts, and Duke York.

The Virginia Gardiner cast member on the poster does not exist but Reginald Gardiner and Virginia Campbell do.

It is suspiciously short for a musical with five numbers, at 89 minutes.

A lavish, luxurious production was, it cost $3 million, but took only $1.5 million in US rentals. Fairbanks Jr complained: ‘It just wrecked my career momentum’.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,774

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