just watch it!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I had to see this film for two reasons: I love silent movies and I love the films of Ernst Lubitsch. So, since it was BOTH, I felt it would be a terrific film. Unfortunately, it really was nothing out of the ordinary--even if the film looked good.The film is about the wacky world of adultery. It concerns two couples and a guy who all get wrapped up in a case of partner-hopping. One lady is married to a nice guy but all she seems interested in doing is chasing men. He suspects and hires a private detective to follow her. The current object of her desire is her best friend's husband. As for this friend and her husband, they are both idiots. He wants to be a good and faithful husband but puts himself in bad situations. Several times throughout the film, I just wanted to see him belt the hussy! As for his wife, I really, really disliked her. Again and again, she pushed her husband away from her and distrusted him--as if she was trying to get him to cheat on her. And, at the same time, the husband's partner starts making the moves on her.All this is supposed to be sophisticated and witty. The problem is, it's not the least bit witty. It manages to make adultery seem a bit dull, actually. And, as the characters are mostly unlikable, I found it really hard to actually care about them or their plights. At best, this film is ordinary. Fortunately, Lubitsch went on to far better things.

007: Marriage Circle (1924) - released 2/10/1924, viewed 7/27/05.Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins his bid for leadership of Soviet Russia. The 1924 Winter Olympics commence in Chamonix, France. Petrograd is renamed Leningrad. The U.N. recognizes the Soviet Union. Mohandes Gandhi is released from prison on medical grounds. The gas chamber used for the first time in an execution in Nevada.BIRTHS: Sabu Dastagir. DEATHS: Vladimir Lenin, Woodrow Wilson.KEVIN: We now come to a more unusual entry, a silent sex comedy from a soon-to-be-renowned German filmmaker. I didn't know what to expect from Ernst Lubitsch's Marriage Circle. As it turned out, I enjoyed it very much. Each scene seemed funnier and more engaging than the last. I loved the characters, and I was intrigued by the way the film was performed. Although it was probably done often, it seems like it'd be difficult to adapt a stage play, full of spoken dialogue, to the silent screen. But this one does it wonderfully. The actors all do an excellent job of expressing every emotion and nearly every word without us being able to hear them at all, and with very few title cards necessary. We've got plenty more Lubitsch films further along in the sound era, and I'm looking forward to watching them all.DOUG: I must be honest, I didn't think a comedy like this could possibly work as a silent film. There's not a lot of action happening like with Keaton or Chaplin. There are plenty of characters interacting and bickering. I had suspected that this started out as a play before making the leap to film, and this at a time when film and stage were even more different than they are now. With the dialogue cards only revealing the most essential lines, the actors have to absolutely sell it. And they do. It took me a little while to figure out exactly who was who and what everyone was doing, but once I got it, the movie was a lot of fun. There are a lot of good twists and turns that manage to work despite the lack of sound; When Charlotte suspects her husband Franz is having an affair, she enlists her best friend Mizzi to watch him at a party, unaware that it is in fact Mizzi that Franz is having the affair with. We had a lot of fun filling in the dialogue ourselves, and it is never hard to understand what the characters are thinking.Last film: Our Hospitality (1923). Next film: The Thief of Bagdhad (1924).The Movie Odyssey is an exhaustive, chronological project where we watch as many milestone films as possible, starting with D.W. Griffith's Intolerance in 1916 and working our way through, year by year, one film at a time. We also write a short review for each and every film. In this project, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the time period, the films of the era, and each film in context, while at the same time just watching a lot of great movies, most of which we never would have watched otherwise.

Mainly of interest to those looking for Lubitsch touches, of which there are a goodly number. Hollywood has had a difficult time cleaning up European sex comedies for the American market without losing the zip.This picture is an example of this problem. Very good costumes and sets, but the story is not engaging.

A superb, honest, tender romantic comedy of manners, which features acting today's performers would be hard to match. You can laugh and feel for these characters. Ernst Lubitsch's smart direction keeps the movie always interesting, never dated."The Marriage Circle" should be required viewing for today's filmmakers. They'd learn how to reveal characters in emotionally complicated situations with minimum dialogue. And how to tell a story with minimum dialogue. And be funny.