''The Doll'' (german: Die Puppe) is a 1919 German romantic fantasy comedy film directed by

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...

. The film is based on the operetta ''

La poupée ''La poupée'' (''The Doll'') is an opéra comique in a prelude and three acts composed by Edmond Audran with a libretto by Maurice Ordonneau. The libretto was based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's ''Der Sandmann'', about a friar who falsely promises to ...

'' by

Edmond Audran Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and ...

(1896) and a line of influence back through the

Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and French opera, operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and ''Sylvia (ba ...

ballet ''

Coppélia ''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-� ...

'' (1870) and ultimately to E. T. A. Hoffmann's short story "Der Sandmann" (1816).

Plot summary

Lancelot is the nephew of the Baron, his uncle. The Baron is pressuring him to get married but Lancelot is afraid of women. He decides to fool his uncle by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead.

Cast

DVD releases

The film was released in the US by

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...

as part of the box set ''Lubitsch in Berlin'' (2007) with English intertitles. It was also released in the UK by Eureka's

Masters of Cinema Masters of Cinema is a line of DVD and Blu-ray releases published through Eureka Entertainment. Because of the uniformly branded and spine-numbered packaging and the standard inclusion of booklets and analysis by recurring film historians, the ...

series as part of the box set ''Lubitsch in Berlin: Fairy-Tales, Melodramas, and Sex Comedies'' (2010) with German intertitles and English subtitles.

Notes

Bibliography

External links

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The Doll - with intertitles in English.
1919 films 1919 romantic comedy films Films of the Weimar Republic German silent feature films Films directed by Ernst Lubitsch Films based on The Sandman (short story) Films based on operettas Films based on adaptations German black-and-white films UFA GmbH films German romantic comedy films 1910s fantasy comedy films German fantasy comedy films Silent romantic comedy films 1910s German films {{romantic-comedy-film-stub