ComedyRomance

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

- He married in haste and repeated in pleasure!

American multi-millionaire Michael Brandon marries his eighth wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broken French Marquis. But she doesn't want to be only a number in the row of his ex-wives and starts her own strategy to tame him.

Release Date : 1938-03-25

Language :EnglishFrench

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Paramount Pictures

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Nicole De Loiselle

Original Name : Claudette Colbert

Gender : Female

Character Name : Michael Brandon

Original Name : Gary Cooper

Gender : Male

Character Name : Marquis De Loiselle

Original Name : Edward Everett Horton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Albert De Regnier

Original Name : David Niven

Gender : Male

Character Name : Aunt Hedwige

Original Name : Elizabeth Patterson

Gender : Female

Character Name : Monsieur Pepinard

Original Name : Herman Bing

Gender : Male

Character Name : Kid Mulligan

Original Name : Warren Hymer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Assistant Hotel Manager

Original Name : Franklin Pangborn

Gender : Male

Character Name : Assistant Hotel Manager

Original Name : Armand Cortes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Floorwalker

Original Name : Rolfe Sedan

Gender : Male

Character Name : Professor Urganzeff

Original Name : Lawrence Grant

Gender : Male

Character Name : Monsieur Potin

Original Name : Lionel Pape

Gender : Male

Character Name : Clerk

Original Name : Tyler Brooke

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ex-Chauffeur (uncredited)

Original Name : Leon Ames

Gender : Male

Character Name : Waiter Arranging Furniture (uncredited)

Original Name : Gino Corrado

Gender : Male

Character Name : American Tourist (uncredited)

Original Name : Joseph Crehan

Gender : Male

Character Name : Maurice - Second Porter (uncredited)

Original Name : George Davis

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nurse at Door (uncredited)

Original Name : Mariska Aldrich

Gender : Female

Character Name : Party Guest (uncredited)

Original Name : Lenore Aubert

Gender : Female

Character Name : Waiter on the Stairs (uncredited)

Original Name : Eugene Borden

Gender : Male

Character Name : Uncle Fernandel (uncredited)

Original Name : Barlowe Borland

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Marie Burton

Gender : Female

Character Name : Newsboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Albert D'Arno

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Dorothy Dayton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Waiter in the Hall (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean De Briac

Gender : Male

Character Name : Package Clerk (uncredited)

Original Name : Ray De Ravenne

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nightclub Patron (uncredited)

Original Name : Sayre Dearing

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Paula DeCardo

Gender : Male

Character Name : Cashier (uncredited)

Original Name : Blanche Franke

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Norah Gale

Gender : Male

Character Name : Customer (uncredited)

Original Name : Pauline Garon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nurse (uncredited)

Original Name : Grace Goodall

Gender : Female

Character Name : Man Leaving Hotel in France (uncredited)

Original Name : Sacha Guitry

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Harriette Haddon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Monsieur de la Coste (uncredited)

Original Name : Charles Halton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Male Nurse in Sanitarium (uncredited)

Original Name : Chuck Hamilton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Store President's Valet (uncredited)

Original Name : Olaf Hytten

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Barbara Jackson

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Lola Jensen

Gender : Female

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Gwen Kenyon

Gender : Female

Character Name : Head Porter (uncredited)

Original Name : Harry Lamont

Gender : Male

Character Name : Little Girl on Beach (uncredited)

Original Name : Sally Martin

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Joyce Mathews

Gender : Male

Character Name : Photographer (uncredited)

Original Name : Harold Minjir

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Carol Parker

Gender : Male

Character Name : Railway Employee (uncredited)

Original Name : Albert Petit

Gender : Male

Character Name : Train Conductor (uncredited)

Original Name : John Picorri

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Ruth Rogers

Gender : Female

Character Name : Headwaiter (uncredited)

Original Name : Joseph Romantini

Gender : Male

Character Name : Laughing Man in Movie Theatre (uncredited)

Original Name : Ronald R. Rondell

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Amzie Strickland

Gender : Female

Character Name : Male Nurse in Sanitarium (uncredited)

Original Name : Harry Tenbrook

Gender : Male

Character Name : Barbuchet - Store Manager (uncredited)

Original Name : Jacques Vanaire

Gender : Male

Character Name : Store Vice-President (uncredited)

Original Name : Michael Visaroff

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Dorothy White

Gender : Female

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Gloria Williams

Gender : Male

Character Name : First Porter (uncredited)

Original Name : Alex Woloshin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Book Salesman (uncredited)

Original Name : Wolfgang Zilzer

Gender : Male

Reviews

tmdb28039023

@tmdb28039023

2022-09-15

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife was the first of two collaborations between director Ernst Lubitsch and then up-and-coming screenwriter Billy Wilder. The film, all style and surface, is more Lubistch than Wilder, but the script co-written by Wilder and Charles Brackett (a tandem that would create, among others, The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard) lends itself perfectly to the famous 'Lubistch touch' — the German filmmaker’s characteristic shrewd and methodical humor. For Lubitsch, making laugh is like making love, and he isn’t the slightest bit interested in instant gratification; in fact, his approach is the comic equivalent of Hitchcock's definition of suspense. Michael (Gary Cooper) suffers from insomnia; Nicole (Claudette Colbert), whom he meets at the beginning of the story in the store where he goes to buy a pijama shirt (but no pants, which itself to an elaborately humorous visual gag), recommends “Professor Urganzeff's method ... take a long word, like 'Czechoslovakia' ... While you spell it backwards, you stretch and yawn between each letter … You only have to worry about 'slovakia.' By the time you get to "Czech" you will be fast asleep." The second half of the film actually takes place in Czechoslovakia, where we finally get the real punchline to a joke that Lubitsch set up some half-hour ago (and to top it off, near the end of the movie we find out that there really is a Professor Urganzeff). Michael is a 'serial husband'; marriage is such a revolving door for him that the suit he wears to his most recent wedding still has rice on it from the previous ceremony. Nicole is horrified to learn that Michael has been married seven times previously and calls off the wedding, much to her father's dismay. Michael explains that he gives each of his wives a prenuptial agreement that guarantees $50,000 a year for life if they divorce. Nicole agrees to marry for double that amount, and proceeds to apply withhold sex (not in so many words, of course) to precipitate a divorce and because otherwise "it wouldn't be fair to my next husband." As usual, Lubitsch knows that 'love' is not the stuff of drama but of farce, and that lovers are not so much to be pitied as ridiculed; on the other hand, he has a sincere appreciation for his characters, who are like little children, and he ultimately laughs with them, and not at them.