Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938) – E. Lubitsch

Although not rivalling Lubitsch’s masterpieces and filmed immediately before two of them (Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner), Bluebeard still has enough of the director’s sly “touch” to bring a smile to these lips and even some chortles.  Gary Cooper is a multimillionaire used to getting his way who decides that he’d like to have Claudette Colbert as his wife (and her hustler father, Edward Everett Horton is certainly keen). However, when she finds out she is to be the 8^th wife (and he is rather cavalier about it), she forces Cooper to boost the pre-nup agreement to give her a healthy annual pay-out upon divorce.  And then she proceeds to torment him by partying and carrying on and ignoring him (particularly in the boudoir).  A very young David Niven plays her supposed love interest and it’s a good comic turn from him.  Of course, Colbert is sparkling and even Cooper (who can be stodgy) is able to bring laughs. Perhaps the battle of the sexes doesn’t quite soar but it’s refreshing to see the topic broached (as Lubitsch has done before).  Worth a watch (after you watch the director’s 4 or 5 even funnier films).