A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Acting
Garbo's glacial thaw is silent-era precision
Direction
Lubitsch: where a hat check becomes foreplay
Writing
Communists in Paris have all the best lines
Director
Ernst Lubitsch
Greta Garbo
Nina "Ninotchka" Ivanovna Yakushova
Melvyn Douglas
Count Leon d'Algout
Ina Claire
Grand Duchess Swana
Bela Lugosi
Commissar Razinin
Sig Ruman
Comrade Iranoff
Felix Bressart
Comrade Buljanoff
Alexander Granach
Comrade Kopalski
Gregory Gaye
Count Alexis Rakonin
Edwin Maxwell
Mercier
Richard Carle
Gaston
George Davis
Porter at Railroad Station (uncredited)
Dorothy Adams
Swana's Maid Jacqueline (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
MGM's 'Garbo Laughs!' campaign weaponized her severity; the film opened weeks after Hitler invaded Poland, making its political satire suddenly urgent.
Bela Lugosi's Commissar Razinin was his last major studio role—typecast from horror to communist menace, he never escaped the villain slot.
US
