• Home
  • News
  • Top Picks
    • Movies & Films: Top 25
    • Documentaries: Top 25
    • Films For Students: Top 10
    • Music Videos: Top 10
  • Categories
    • Film
    • Documentary
    • Shorts
    • Blog
    • Calendar
    • Links
    • About

Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Ninotchka (1939)

Tagged: Anti-socialism

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE: BEST PICTURE
A stolid female Soviet agent is sent to Paris on business and is seduced by capitalist ways. [ Ninotchka credits: Dir: Ernst Lubitsch/ Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire/ 108 min/ Comedy, Romance/ Anti-Socialism]

“This delightful romantic comedy is listed in almost every reckoning of the greatest films, reflecting both its terrifically witty script and a wonderful performance by Greta Garbo as the grim unfeminine agent of the Soviet state.”

As this film begins, three agents of the Soviet trade board have just arrived in Paris to sell some confiscated jewels, once owned by a Russian duchess who is now in exile. These rather comic agents are imminently corruptible, and they soon begin indulging in the unrestrained pleasures of Paris at the expense of the Soviet government. Meanwhile, the jewels become the subject of a legal dispute.

To sort out the matter, the Soviet government sends in envoy extraordinaire Ninotchka, a glum, high-level agent of the Soviet state. However, she too is quickly seduced by the West, and even falls in love with the very man who is negotiating against her. The next thing you know, the jewels are stolen. It’s complicated, but everything ends satisfactorily, with love and capitalism overcoming all.

For the most part, this film mocks the disastrous consequences of socialism, including mass poverty, censorship, and perpetual fear of the state. However, at the same time it also pays some respect to socialist “ideals.” As Ninotchka says at one point, “We have the high ideals, but they have the climate.” In this regard it’s a foreshadowing of the intellectual double standard that would maintain the respectability of socialism for years by crediting it with moral virtue in theory regardless of how it played out in practice. The capitalist alternative here is nonetheless preferable but shallow, a world of consumption and frivolity with no apparent need for work. This film seems an attack on seriousness as much as anything else. Of course, in 1939, when it was made, the world was still a little naive.

Anyway, this delightful romantic comedy is listed in almost every reckoning of the greatest films, reflecting both its terrifically witty script and a wonderful performance by Greta Garbo as the grim unfeminine agent of the Soviet state. It is indeed a great film, one of those classic movies everyone should see. One of my favorite bits of dialogue occurs between Ninotchka and a porter at a train station. Ninotchka: “Why do you want to carry my bags?” Porter: “That is my business.” Ninotchka: “That’s no business. That’s social injustice.” Porter: “That depends on the tip.”

If you enjoy this film, you may also like Silk Stockings, a musical version of the same story.

How to See It

Netflix
Amazon (DVD)
Amazon (Instant Video)
YouTube Video Search
Online Video Search

Links

IMDB
Wikipedia
Related Film: Silk Stockings

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Trackbacks

  1. Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World – Silk Stockings (1957) says:
    February 15, 2014 at 10:24 pm

    […] Fred Astaire, capitalist lingerie and the freedom to choose her own destiny. This musical remake of Ninotchka is an improvement over the original, politically speaking. No doubt by 1957 the world had a […]

Featured Post

right-wingers

How To Debate Right-Wingers

How to Debate Right-Wingers is a short, humorous skit that mocks the typical, familiar methods used by leftists to shut down legitimate debate. It is produced by Reason: Common sense for the common good, a British organization (not, I think affiliated with Reason Magazine). … Continue Reading

Indoctrinate U

Indoctrinate U (2007)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN DOCUMENTARIES Humorous and hard-hitting examination of politically correct campus speech codes and the 'thought police' who enforce them. [ Indoctrinate U credits: Dir: Evan Coyne Maloney/ 87 min/ Documentary/ Freedom of speech, Propaganda] "Indoctrinate U does a good job of … Continue Reading

scarlet pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS Posing as a useless dandy, an English gentleman secretly risks all to save innocent lives from the guillotine of the French Revolution. Based on the Baroness Orczy novel. [ The Scarlet Pimpernel credits: Dir: Harold Young/ Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel … Continue Reading

Themes

Abuse of power American revolution Anti-draft Anti-regulation Anti-slavery Anti-socialism Anti-taxation Anti-war Ayn Rand Corrupt government Creator as hero Democide Econ 101 Eminent domain Equality & law Escape from socialism Freedom of speech Free press as hero Government as bigot Government as torturer Government enforced morality Government healthcare Government schools Incompetent government Individualism John Stossel Law & liberty Legalize Drugs Libertarian heroes Libertarianism 101 Power corrupts Power worship Pro-capitalism Pro-immigration Propaganda Psychiatric coercion Resistance to tyranny Right to secede Search & seizure Second amendment Sexual liberty Social tolerance Unions & monopolies Voluntarism Working for government

Genres/Categories

Action-Adventure Animated Biography Blog Comedy Documentary Drama Family Featured Film Foreign History Horror Music-Dance Netflix News Romance SciFi-Fantasy Shorts Thriller Upcoming Western

About Miss Liberty

This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

  • RSS

© 2023 Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World. All Rights Reserved