"I should hate to see our country endangered by my underwear"

Ninotchka

(1939)

OK, this is not a perfect film: for one thing, that hat is seriously horrible--what were they thinking? And Melvyn Douglas? C'mon--couldn't they get William Powell? Or maybe Fred Astaire? (Oh, wait--maybe we'll see that later in the weekend.) And the "Garbo laughs" scene--it starts well, but couldn't they do better than a slapstick conclusion? Sorry: not persuasive.

On the other hand, Garbo herself is perfect, or nearly so, and the script is wonderful, if not perfect. And the very fact that neither capitalism nor communism gets an edge has to make it unique among American films from the movies' best year. An arguably great film, and an unarguably very good one.