Those who think that Cole Porter and the Cold War make strange bedfellows aren't going to have their minds changed by this movie. It's a bizarre mishmash of MGM kitsch, Red-baiting, and homosexual archness, adapted from the stage musical. It also must be the dullest movie ever made in celebration of fun. I don't know what the stage version did (it's never revived) but this movie has one idea (Communism boring, Capitalism fun!) and it keeps beating us on the head with it while showing us around out a lot of Louis Whatever hotel suites that few Americans in 1957 could afford either. 1...2...3...what are we fighting for! (Money, evidently.) The propaganda would be more persuasive if Charisse didn't look sexier in her Worker's Black Nylons than she does in the silks that mark her transformation from dull comrade to fun capitalist-- and if those silks didn't actually appear to be nylons.
For Komic Relief, there are Three Komrades-- they're the Three Stooges. The 'Ninotchka' (Charisse) is innocent of kissing-- she's like the native girls in '30s South Seas flicks. I guess they didn't do THAT behind the Iron Curtain. Perhaps the relevant passages were blacked out of her state translation of THE SUN ALSO RISES. We wait, and wait, and wait while Astaire sings and Janis Paige (she's trying to be Jean Hagen) chews the scenery, for Astaire and Charisse to dance. The dance numbers are very good and show off Astaire's unending quest to try out new ideas. Shame the rest of the movie didn't do so.
This period piece is useful as a stored version of the Broadway show but it's watchable only if you occasionally use fast-forward.
For Komic Relief, there are Three Komrades-- they're the Three Stooges. The 'Ninotchka' (Charisse) is innocent of kissing-- she's like the native girls in '30s South Seas flicks. I guess they didn't do THAT behind the Iron Curtain. Perhaps the relevant passages were blacked out of her state translation of THE SUN ALSO RISES. We wait, and wait, and wait while Astaire sings and Janis Paige (she's trying to be Jean Hagen) chews the scenery, for Astaire and Charisse to dance. The dance numbers are very good and show off Astaire's unending quest to try out new ideas. Shame the rest of the movie didn't do so.
This period piece is useful as a stored version of the Broadway show but it's watchable only if you occasionally use fast-forward.
