The Doll

One of my favorite opening shots in any movie comes from the charming 1919 silent fairy tale comedy "The Doll". In it, we see the film's director Ernst Lubitsch opening up a toy box and creating the scene from cardboard scenery and dolls for the characters. The film begins and the dolls turn into real life characters while the cardboard scenery remains. It's such a nice little wink and shows off Lubitsch's playful sense of humour to the audience.

"The Doll" takes place in a made up kingdom where a young man named Lancelot (Hermann Thimig) is being pressured by his Uncle the Baron to take a wife. The Baron wants to see his family name live on but Lancelot is a bit of a prudish momma's boy who seems to be afraid of women. He doesn't want to get married, he runs away from his Uncle and takes solace in a monastery which houses a bunch of monks who happen to be broke. Lancelot's Uncle sends word to him that if he decides to marry, he'll give him a large sum of money which the monks need desperately. Lancelot is still hesitant but luckily there is a toymaker in town who specializes in making life-sized women dolls for men.

The dolls are all wound up and can follow orders with the push of a button, so Lancelot figures this is the perfect way to get him from marrying a real woman and still get the money he needs to help the monks.

One such doll is modeled after the toymaker's daughter Ossi (Ossi Ozwalda). When the incompetent assistant accidentally breaks the doll, Ossi takes its place and goes off to marry Lancelot. Lancelot still isn't any the wiser, even as Ossi shows signs of not being a real doll. The toymaker meanwhile realizes that his daughter has gone off to marry Lancelot without his knowing, and his hair begins to raise and turn instantly white with worry.

"The Doll" was made while Ernst Lubitsch was still making movies in Germany, before his golden age of making sophisticated romantic comedies in Hollywood. I always found Lubitsch to be an anomaly; besides him the most famous German directors were Fritz Lang, and F.W. Murnau, these were men who had a reputation for being controlling and somewhat humourless when it came to their films. They were pioneers in what is now known as German expressionism, which usually dealt in dark genres such as horrors or thrillers. Lubitsch always dealt with the lighter side of life, because he had a sense of humour about it.

I've seen many old photographs of Lubitsch and in every one he's always smiling and is usually holding a cigar in his mouth. He seemed to be a man who didn't take life too seriously and therefore didn't make anything sacred.

"The Doll" could be described as one of the very first sex, comedies. Sex has always remained in the movies countless times no matter how much the censors try to take it off the screens. In another director's hands, sex could be seen as sensuous or tantalizing, but Lubitsch simply found it funny. He was probably the first director ever to make fun of sex, and what happens when the lights go out in the bedroom.

With "The Doll", he makes fun of the implications of marrying a toy. "Just as long as it doesn't hurt", says Lancelot when he agrees to marry the doll. The toymaker even gives Lancelot some maintenance tips for the doll, making sure to "oil it every two weeks", and make sure "to give it a good dusting". It's that kind of innuendo which makes "The Doll" hilariously modern, but it's done so innocently, it never sounds crass or dirty.

The glue that holds the film together has got to be Ossi Oswalda, who plays the wonderfully bratty daughter of the toymaker as well as the doll itself. Ossi appeared in a number of Lubitsch's German films, and she seems to have a wonderful comic sensibility. There is just the right sense of charm and mischief in Ossi's performance that Lubistch must've took a shine to her particularly for this film.

The world, "The Doll" inhabits though is like a child's make believe land, and it's with that aesthetic, the film is able to sustain a sense of innocence, despite the rather grown up subject matter. Only a director like Lubitsch could create such a world where even sex could be thought of as so innocent, under his hands it never became taboo, just fun.

When someone talks about the films of Ernst Lubitsch, they are usually given a nickname, it's called "The Lubitsch Touch". No one can exactly explain what his touch was, everyone has their own theories towards what it was. I suppose the point is, once Lubitsch died, his magical touch died with him. No matter how many people tried, they couldn't duplicate his movies. They were a perfect balance of taboo subject matter, and popular entertainment, and I suppose another word for that would be class. But Lubitsch never thought a joke was too cheap to use, you could tell he found anything funny. Did I mention the toymaker's name was Hilarious?