German director/writer Ernst Lubitsch December 1919 "The Doll," ranks as one of silent movies' funniest romantic fantasy comedies.
Labeled as an adult fairy tale, "The Doll," based on an 1896 opera, tells the tale of a young lad, the last of a Baron's lineage, escaping to a monastery since he's afraid of his very wealthy uncle's intention to marry him off. The monks, seeing a golden opportunity to get his dowry for marrying, arrange for him to wed a mechanical doll instead.
The lead-up to the wedding, filmed in a purposeful playhouse-designed setting, portrays the wacky events of a doll-maker's efforts to create a believable human doll, only to see his efforts thwarted by an accident by his young apprentice. So he conscripts his real life daughter, played by Ossi Oswalda, to pretend to be a doll. The wedding sequence has been cited as one of the funniest scenarios captured on cellulose.
Labeled as an adult fairy tale, "The Doll," based on an 1896 opera, tells the tale of a young lad, the last of a Baron's lineage, escaping to a monastery since he's afraid of his very wealthy uncle's intention to marry him off. The monks, seeing a golden opportunity to get his dowry for marrying, arrange for him to wed a mechanical doll instead.
The lead-up to the wedding, filmed in a purposeful playhouse-designed setting, portrays the wacky events of a doll-maker's efforts to create a believable human doll, only to see his efforts thwarted by an accident by his young apprentice. So he conscripts his real life daughter, played by Ossi Oswalda, to pretend to be a doll. The wedding sequence has been cited as one of the funniest scenarios captured on cellulose.