The Doll (1919)

Forced into marriage by his uncle, a man decides to fool him by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead(!!!). This bizarre plot almost seems to succeed-only to go completely off the rails when the Dollmaker's daughter decides to take the automaton's place...

Already known for his historical dramas, early auteur Ernst Lubitsch decided to try something different for his next project, tackling the operetta La Poupée by Edmond Audran (1896). Our 64 minute features opens with an introduction by Lubitsch himself with an artificial cardboard diorama, which then unfolds into a fairy tale full of deliberately artificial sets and a few brief and deliberately crude animations meant to create a deliberately unreal atmosphere. The cast acquits itself well in this film I think, giving this farce a goodly amount of scenery chewing when the gags and stunts call for it, especially the two leads...I honestly can't picture the slightly dim and highly neurotic Lancelot played by anybody but Hermann Thimig after seeing him in action- he could teach Chaplin a thing or two I think! Meanwhile, actress Ossi Oswalda (playing both the mechanical doll and the Dollmaker's daughter Ossi) lights up just about every scene she's in with a combination of adorable elan and childish mischief, and could easily eclipsed the other actors-instead Ms Oswalda seems to be the glue that keeps this comedy on track and moving to a satisfactory conclusion.

This Public Domain comedy is fairly well known in Germany even today, not so much in the US-we seem to place more esteem in Lubitsch's later sound productions. Hopefully this will change in time...Silent, Music