La belle de Moscou

This is a musical remake of Ninotchka. Something MGM did repeatedly in the 1950s was remake a golden era classic of theirs in musical format, and it usually landed with a thud. This is no exception. The only thing I found interesting was Fred Astaire, who is always a joy to watch. Without him this effort would probably be a 3 or 4 out of ten. The surprise in the original Ninotchka was Garbo as an effective dead pan comedienne, but Cyd Charisse just bombs in this parallel role. Maybe the difference is that Americans had a completely different attitude towards Russia than they did in 1939, right before WWII. Maybe that kept MGM from doing anything the least bit challenging with the material almost twenty years later.

The musical numbers just slow everything down and most of them are boring. Rouben Mamoulian is the director, and in fact it is his very last credited directing role. He and Lubitsch, who directed the original Nitnotchka, were at Paramount at about the same time in the 1930s, but he just is unable to work any magic on this film.