Pretty Good

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Absolutely Brilliant!

This movie is a fun low-pressure comedy. It uses dry wit... people who can't process that type of humor might not enjoy the movie as much. The costumes are lavish, the colors are vivid, and Betty Grable looks hot as always.To see an interesting breech of continuity, watch Betty Grable's high-heels change into completely different shoes midway through her dance (roughly 1:01 into the movie). It was likely intended to protect her from injury during the acrobatic moves, but it is surprising that so little effort went into matching the alternate shoes with the originals.

THE LADY IN ERMINE certainly has its moments, but it can't decide if it wants to be a romance or a comedy. Parts of it are very funny indeed and had me laughing out loud, while others seem to fall as flat as a lead balloon.Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is handsome and dashing, as usual, providing a much needed surge of energy when he is on screen, but Betty Grable seems uncomfortable in her double role. She's far more enjoyable to watch as the ancestor than she is as the descendant. The opportunity for her to display her most valuable assets (her legs) is limited.20th Century Fox has surrounded the two leads with good character actors from its stable, including Cesar Romero showing some versatility, Walter Abel in two roles, and Harry Davenport as the likable old retainer. Reginald Gardiner is wasted as Alberto.It's a shame that the songs are so ordinary and mostly forgettable. Was this the best Fox, the studio that brought us STATE FAIR, could do? All in all, you're not missing much if you don't see it, but it's a pleasantly diverting way to pass an hour and thirty minutes.

Lubitsch's last production but not his least interesting film. Somehow largely ignored by critics as he couldn't finish it himself and as the movie wasn't co-signed by Preminger who he did most of the staging... A very strange mix of musical (a remembrance of The Merry Widow ?)and classic Lubitsch touch sentimentalism (an impossible love-story like Cluny Brown)yet a very clever and intelligent one yet not to be understood as some nostalgia of some lost world but rather a testament on eternal feelings prevailing on the foolishness of mankind and especially men in times of war with a "moral" lesson still true today as it was in 1948. Billy wilder as an answer to Preminger who grieved at Lubitsch's funerals about having lost a great man replied that we still had his films and that sums it all up about that Lady in Ermine...

If you have the opportunity to catch this one on TV (It's in American Movie Classic's library, I believe, and doesn't appear to be available on video.) and you're a fan of Ernst Lubitsch, don't expect much evidence of his famous "Touch." Herr Lubitsch died before completing very much of this production and the directing reigns were turned over to Otto Preminger. Apparently the studio felt that an artist whose ancestral origins shared to some degree those of Mr. Lubitsch was the proper person to complete this project. My own impression of the final results makes the passing of the talented Mr. Lubitsch a great misfortune for all concerned. As I watched it on a TV broadcast several years ago I stared in amazement at what seemed an extraordinarily clumsy and heavy-handed attempt to tell what is, essentially, a fairy story for adults. There are definitely elements to enjoy and Betty Grable is, as always, appealingly lovely in Technicolor and has a lively and natural presence as an actress. But Mr. Preminger's reputation, without later critically praised films, such as "Anatomy of a Murder," was not greatly enhanced by the final cut of this film.