

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
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.