Ernst Lubitsch's "The Doll" (1919) German: "Die Puppe"

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A fairy tale about a young prince named Lancelot (Hermann Thimig). The rich Baron of Chanterelle (Max Kronert) wants to preserve his family line, and is pressuring his only nephew and heir, Lancelot, to wed. To continue the line, the Baron offers his nephew a dowry of 300,000 francs to get married. But, Lancelot is timid, and afraid of women.
His uncle, the Baron, forces Lancelot to choose one of the village maidens to take as his wife. Lancelot is then chased round the town by forty eager maidens, followed by his elderly uncle, followed by a servant with the uncle's medication. To escape the huge gang of women, Lancelot runs away, instead of marrying, and flees to a monastery where the young man settles in with some morally suspect monks.
The monks do nothing but eat like pigs and complain that they have no money. When the gluttonous monks discover that Lancelot is an heir, and that the Baron is offering a large sum for the marriage, they come up with a plan for Lancelot to marry a mechanical doll instead, and give them his uncle's dowry. The local prior shows him an advertisement from the doll maker, Mr. Hilarius (Victor Janson), who offers a special service "for bachelors, widowers and misogynists: a life-size clockwork girl!" Lancelot can go and buy one of his life-size and highly realistic dolls.
Despite the dolls obviously not looking alive in the least, Lancelot decides to fool his uncle and buy one of these life-like mechanical dolls, marry it, collect the dowry, then stash the doll in the attic.
The wacky-looking doll maker agrees to Lancelot's interest in his newest doll, an exact replica of Hilarius' wonderful, cute and funny daughter, Ossi (Ossi Oswalda). The clockwork girl wears a frilly outfit with a short skirt, and has a control panel on her back with a crank to wind her up.
But the doll-maker's young apprentice (Gerhard Ritterband) accidentally breaks the arm of the doll, then convinces the real Ossi to masquerade as the lifeless doll, in order to cover up his accident.
Lancelot purchases what he believes is a life-size doll to be his wife, and takes her back to his uncle's castle. When the young man shows this doll to his uncle, the Baron is thrilled and the Lancelot marries the doll. So, the nephew thinks he's fooling everyone, when he's the one being fooled, as he actually falls in love with the flesh-and-blood woman pretending to be the doll.
A 1919 German romantic fantasy comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, written by Hanns Kräly and Ernst Lubitsch, based on the operetta La poupée by Edmond Audran (1896) and a line of influence back through the Léo Delibes ballet Coppélia (1870) and ultimately to E. T. A. Hoffmann's short story "Der Sandmann" (1816), cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl and Kurt Waschneck, starring Ossi Oswalda, Victor Janson, Hermann Thimig, Max Kronert, Marga Kohler, Gerhard Ritterband, and Jakob Tiedtke.
Hermann Thimig, and Gerhard Ritterband, were successful stage actors.
There is some surprisingly good double-exposure in a couple of camera set-ups when the real Ossi and the mechanical one are onscreen simultaneously. There's also an early example of pixilation (stop-action animation using actors rather than mannequins) in a gag sequence in which Hilarius's hair stands on end, then turns white.
At one point Lancelot takes a heart out of the leg of his pants. This is an allusion to the German expression "Das Herz ist mir in die Hose gerutscht" (my heart slid into my pants), which is equivalent to "have one's heart in one's boots."
This charming fantasy that has a strong Brothers Grimm undercurrent ranks with "The Oyster Princess" (1919) as Lubitsch's most sublime film made during his German period. The deliberately artificial theatrical settings, bright and airy flat backdrops, fake trees and people in horse costumes included by Kurt Richter add to the fairytale-like narrative.
By this point in his career, German comedy director Lubitsch had developed a unique brand of slapstick, the hallmark of which was absurdity and exaggeration. Rather than go overboard trying to make this look as convincing as possible, Lubitsch takes things the other way with his creation of a self-confessed unreal world, complete with wooden sets, painted backdrops and pantomime horses. Such a setting gives Lubitsch greater freedom to really set his genius free in staging his bizarre humor, and the premise of the picture becomes workable.
The inherent sexism isn't lost on Lubitsch, as a humorous advertisement offers the doll maker's product to widowers and misogynists alike.
This adorable fairytale is a clever and unique joyride through imaginative sets, grand décors designs, dancing, and a comedic chase. This supremely funny and delightful silent burlesque coalesces to firmly establish the film's whimsical world as fantasy. A silly and fantastic film from start to finish that never takes itself seriously, and is highly underrated. Essential viewing for Lubitsch completists.