Release Date: June 17, 2025
Prices and Links:
Criterion- $31.96
Amazon- $39.95
DiabolikDVD- $29.99
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writers: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary Astor
Screwball comedy doesn’t get any more effortlessly elegant and gleefully irreverent than this roulette wheel of romantic deception, gleaming with cunning wit and Continental élan. A couture-clad Claudette Colbert is divine as a penniless American showgirl who crashes Parisian high society by posing as a wealthy Hungarian baroness—but both a scheming nobleman (John Barrymore) and a smitten taxi driver (Don Ameche) are soon on to her game. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s sophisticated script—a typically subversive blend of fairy-tale escapism and caustic social observation—and the pitch-perfect direction of master craftsman Mitchell Leisen yield a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite.
Prices and Links:
Criterion- $31.96
Amazon- $39.95
DiabolikDVD- $29.99
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writers: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary Astor
- United States
- 1939
- 94 minutes
- Black & White
- 1.37:1
- English
Screwball comedy doesn’t get any more effortlessly elegant and gleefully irreverent than this roulette wheel of romantic deception, gleaming with cunning wit and Continental élan. A couture-clad Claudette Colbert is divine as a penniless American showgirl who crashes Parisian high society by posing as a wealthy Hungarian baroness—but both a scheming nobleman (John Barrymore) and a smitten taxi driver (Don Ameche) are soon on to her game. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s sophisticated script—a typically subversive blend of fairy-tale escapism and caustic social observation—and the pitch-perfect direction of master craftsman Mitchell Leisen yield a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky
- New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen
- Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns
