★ 05/15/2018 Director Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947) spent his early years in Germany working as an actor and director, eventually leaving for more opportunities and greater creative freedom in Hollywood. Once in America, he switched from spectacles to frothy musical fantasies and comedy, employing his "Lubitsch touch" mixing sophistication, irony, and a distinctive sexy, romantic view of the relations between the sexes, all while circumventing censorship with an indirect approach. Film historian McBride (San Francisco State Univ.; Searching for John Ford: A Life; What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?) pens a thoughtful critical study, calling Lubitsch a master craftsman of classics such as Ninotchka and Trouble in Paradise, even employing comedy in the anti-Nazi satire To Be or Not To Be. The arrival of sound films allowed Lubitsch to use clever wordplay and innovative techniques to confound critics and censors who called him vulgar and frivolous. McBride quotes admirers François Truffaut and Orson Welles as well as colleagues such as Jeannette MacDonald and Mary Pickford. VERDICT Though some early Lubitsch films are lost, McBride rescues the director's neglected and underrated reputation, securing his legacy with critical insights and sound scholarship in one of the few full-length appreciations of the artist. Highly recommended.—Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Lib., PA
★ 04/30/2018 Prolific film historian and biographer McBride (Writing in Pictures) delivers his best book yet with this study of Ernst Lubitsch, who helped invent the movie musical with The Smiling Lieutenant and The Merry Widow and perfected the romantic comedy in films such as Ninotchka and The Shop Around the Corner. Though McBride notes that this is “not a biography but a critical study,” he does trace Lubitsch’s life story, from his 1892 birth and middle-class upbringing in Berlin and early success in the German film industry as a comedian and director, to his arrival in Hollywood at star Mary Pickford’s invitation in 1922 and career there as a director and producer up until his fatal heart attack in 1947. However, narrative takes a backseat to explaining to contemporary viewers what made Lubitsch’s work unique, since McBride believes that Lubitsch’s star has waned in recent years in comparison to other Hollywood auteurs. He emphasizes the urbane and wry “Lubitsch touch,” placing the filmmaker’s irreverent but subtle treatment of sex and infidelity within the context of an era of increasingly stringent censorship (in The Merry Widow, the king comes out of the royal bedroom fastening a belt that is too small, and one that obviously belongs to someone who has just visited the queen). Censors “knew what Lubitsch was saying, but they couldn’t figure out how he was saying it.” McBride has created a nuanced, thorough look at an important artist and his art. (June)
Joseph McBride’s study of Lubitsch matches the breadth and range of his incomparable work on Welles and Ford. Reading it, it is impossible not to want to see each of the director’s greatest films again or for the first time – readers will be driven straight to seek out not only the repertory standards but the silents, the musicals, and the German films. It is especially gratifying to see McBride apply his supple understanding of the intricacies of Lubitsch’s sexual politics to the paradoxes lurking for contemporary viewers, exploring how the films play both against and into feminist readings. McBride doesn’t shy from such explorations, but never leaps to premature conclusions. The book is an act of devotion matched to the heart of its subject.
McBride subtly and concretely describes the change in cinematic tastes over the course of a century. We who love cinema and Lubitsch should be grateful to have such a book in our lifetime, and it will be the definitive work for years to come.
A critical study.
Nine well-informed chapters written in McBride's familiar, accessible style.
Film International - Matthew Sorrento
Although Ernst Lubitsch is one of the wittiest, most entertaining, and sexiest of filmmakers, he’s difficult to write about because wit and humor are more resistant to analysis than drama. McBride succeeds admirably in this task, providing a comprehensive, in-depth critical analysis and commentary on the cultural significance of Lubitsch’s work. His book is a joy to read and a gift to anyone who cares about the art of film.
[A] fine book.
The Sydney Morning Herald
In this delightfully informative book McBride is unabashedly nostalgic for the urbane art of concealing art that Lubitsch mastered in The Shop around the Corner and in so many of his other films.
Athenaeum Review - David Weir
There is no better time than now for a comprehensive study of Lubitsch like McBride’s. . . McBride does much-needed work in showing how Lubitsch was one of the consummate artists America was ever lucky enough to claim as her own.
Critical study.
Ernst Lubitsch’s work has never needed reappraisal more than it does today, and McBride is just the writer for the job. As usual, he mobilizes formidable research and passionate sympathy to probe a great director’s many sides. We see Lubitsch the ethnic comedian, the exile, the romantic, the sardonic satirist, the sly provocateur, the moralist, the supremely confident master of technique. Above all, we see an artist who poured into film after film his keen sensitivity to the vagaries of love and his tolerant wisdom about the ways of the world.
Revered film historian Joseph McBride's new book, How Did Lubitsch Do It? , explores this master of modern comedy in scintillating detail.
A book well worth recommending. It is enjoyable, provocative and thorough.
A compelling case for Lubitsch as an unequaled master of elegant, sophisticated entertainments marked by sly innuendo and adult sensibilities that have stood the test of time.
A critical study.
How Did Lubitsch Do It? is a critical [and] masterful study.
Named the best silent film book of 2019.
[This] excellent, authoritative book . . . is chockful of cultivated insights.
New York Review of Books - Phillip Lopate
It’s a wonderful book on a wonderful picturemaker! The work and detail and time put into it — just extraordinary. Superb! A great service to the public, bringing this unique and brilliant director back to the public's attention. This splendid work does real justice to its subject.
How Did Lubitsch Do It? is one of the most indispensable film books I’ve ever read, not only a rigorously researched and considered biography and an illuminating analysis of Lubitsch’s technique but a broader study of how culture affects filmmaking and vice versa.
Film historian Joseph McBride's tome How Did Lubitsch Do It? makes a comprehensive and enthusiastic . . . case for [Lubitsch]'s importance.
New York Times Book Review
[McBride] reacquaints readers with the director’s genius. . . . Will be a great companion for those interested in underexplored comedies in film history.
In How Did Lubitsch Do It? Joseph McBride has written a love letter to a filmmaker . . . McBride’s detailed appreciations could serve, ideally, as a viewer’s companion to the many layers of Lubitsch’s art.
Wall Street Journal - Geoffrey O'Brien
[This] excellent, authoritative book . . . is chockful of cultivated insights.
New York Review of Books - Phiilip Lopate
There is no better time than now for a comprehensive study of Lubitsch like McBride’s. . . McBride does much-needed work in showing how Lubitsch was one of the consummate artists America was ever lucky enough to claim as her own.
[McBride] reacquaints readers with the director’s genius. . . . Will be a great companion for those interested in underexplored comedies in film history.
How Did Lubitsch Do It? is a critical [and] masterful study.
Nine well-informed chapters written in McBride's familiar, accessible style.
In How Did Lubitsch Do It? Joseph McBride has written a love letter to a filmmaker . . . McBride’s detailed appreciations could serve, ideally, as a viewer’s companion to the many layers of Lubitsch’s art.
[This] excellent, authoritative book . . . is chockful of cultivated insights.
Critical study.
The Weekly Standard - James Bowman
There is no better time than now for a comprehensive study of Lubitsch like McBride’s. . . McBride does much-needed work in showing how Lubitsch was one of the consummate artists America was ever lucky enough to claim as her own.
San Francisco Chronicle - Carlos Valladares
Revered film historian Joseph McBride's new book, How Did Lubitsch Do It? , explores this master of modern comedy in scintillating detail.
LA Weekly - Nathaniel Bell
How Did Lubitsch Do It? is one of the most indispensable film books I’ve ever read, not only a rigorously researched and considered biography and an illuminating analysis of Lubitsch’s technique but a broader study of how culture affects filmmaking and vice versa.
Filmmaker Magazine - Jim Hemphill
A critical study.
McBride’s study serves as both a biography and a cultural history of Europe’s influence on Hollywood that will be a great companion for those interested in underexplored comedies in film history.
The Washington Post - Chris Yogerst
Film historian, Joseph Mcbride's tome How Did Lubitsch Do It? makes a comprehensive and enthusiastic case for [Lubitsch]'s importance.
The New York Times Book Review - Ben Dickinson