Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

hyped garbage

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife has one of the most classic "meet cutes" of any old movie: Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert are shopping for pajamas; he takes the top and she takes the bottoms. Sparks fly, and before they know it, they've gotten hitched! But what penniless Claudette doesn't know is that millionaire Cooper has been married seven times before. Once she finds out his dirty secret, she makes it her mission to make him pay. This is a delightful screwball comedy, with elements of romance, ridiculous timing, sexual innuendos, a battle of the wits, and a battle of the sexes! Armed with help from her father Edward Everett Horton and her friend David Niven, both with hilarious comedic talents, Claudette is ready to battle for the constancy of her husband's affections. There won't be a ninth wife-not on her watch! Check out this adorable romantic comedy during your next classic film fest, or watch it with your hubby after he's done wrong. He'll get the idea.

They meet on the Riviera - buying pajamas. This opening scene is a labored buildup for the hilarious payoff - one of those lauded Lubitsch 'touches'. My favorite scene from this film comes next. Colbert has left the dept store and is walking down the street, with Cooper walking fast to catch up. Colbert smiles knowingly to herself. Then Cooper strides past with narry a howdy-do and is gone. Now this IS a surprise and howlingly funny. But it doesn't make sense. Cooper is obviously smitten, but he ignores her. Further, how are they to get together when he doesn't know her name or address?The it-makes-no-sense-at-all plot has them marry and divorce. Now with alimony Colbert has money of her own and doesn't need to marry him for his money. She says this proves she loves him. Say again? After making him miserable and crazy, in the last 3 minutes the story wraps up happily and unconvincingly. Her goal was to cure her divorce inclined mate and make him a forever husband. But has this goal been accomplished? Along the way a bit of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is tossed into the mix. We see Cooper reading 'Shrew' and then acting on what he has misread. In an hilarious scene he marches from his rooms to her rooms and does something that Petruchio would never have done to Kate, and Colbert swiftly sets him straight. It's been suggested that the script was a retelling of 'Shrew' with Colbert in the Petruchio role, but I, familiar with Shakespeare, don't see it. Oh, yes, Cooper spanks Colbert, just as Petruchio did Kate. But that's where the likeness ends.It IS fun watching Colbert make mincemeat out of Bluebeard. Colbert is an expert comedienne. Cooper less so. He's handsome and charming, but stolid where playful is required. Cooper had worked with Lubitsch 2 years earlier in 'Desire' with Marlene Dietrich, and he was excellent in this comedy. Apparently the problem in this film lies in the mismatch between Cooper's image and the Bluebeard character. Was Cary Grant not available? Or Melvyn Douglas? The film looks classy, except for the too obvious rear-projection scenes of the honeymoon couple walking the streets of European cities, which are jarring in this A-budget film. Colbert's costumes of ruffles, furs and spiffy hats are gorgeous. Colbert is gorgeous. I have long thought her chirpiness annoying, but in 'She Met Him in Paris', '3-Cornered Moon' and this film, all on the Colbert Collection set, she's perfection.In spite of the goofy plot and a not-quite-up-to-the-task Cooper, you'll enjoy watching these 2 great Stars deliver a lot of laughs.

It's all about getting what you want when you want it. And the message of Bluebeard's Eighth WIfe is to be careful what you wish for, until what you wish for wishes for you.Most men have heard the stories about what happens when your sexual frustration isn't relieved and a certain part of your anatomy turning blue. Misogynistic pirates aside, Cooper plays a very wealthy man who is very accustomed to getting what he wants whenever he wants it, learning only too late that it wasn't what he expected and never learning his lesson until he runs into the feisty Claudette Colbert. Through a twisted (in soul and in practice) business deal, he ends up marring/buying her with the intent of bedding her, but she will have none of it (literally) and frustrates him at every turn, and corner, and room, and tourist attraction.The film has definite French sensibilities which means it has strong double-entendres and boudoir humor for the day and a sharp edge you're not accustomed to (and may not enjoy seeing) in either Cooper or Colbert. The whole reason I watched the film was because they are "likable" actors, and the whole point of this movie is that they're unlikable people, or at least likable people who have developed unlikable traits to protect themselves, they think, from the world. If you can accept it on its own terms you'll find satisfaction in this witty and sophisticated film...and satisfaction, as we said, is what it's all about. Such a movie with such a cast only comes around, after all, once in a...ummm...blue moon.

This film reappeared on channel 13 in the 1990s when they did a series of comedies from Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. In fact, to the tune of "The Jolly Fat Policeman", they had a montage of scenes from the films to introduce the series of people laughing, including one of Gary Cooper chortling when watching a film in a movie house - a sequence from this film.It all begins innocently enough when Cooper, a millionaire, goes into a fancy department store in France to buy pajamas. But he only likes to sleep in the tops. The clerk (Tyler Brooke) insists that he cannot sell half a pair of pajamas as Cooper wants. Claudette Colbert hears the argument and offers to help - she only likes to sleep in pajama bottoms. What if Brooke sells them each half? Brooke has never had such an offer before, so he goes to the floor walker (Rolfe Sedan) and asks him if this can be done. He is disturbed too - the request is quite unconventional. Eventually they contact the store's owner (Charles Halton). Halton is in bed, and gets out - his skinny frame supporting only a pajama top (if a suitably long one for the sake of censorship). Can they sell the two customers one set of pajamas (half for each)? Properly horrified, Halton answers, "No, of course not! That is Communism!!". So the sale is not allowed. Apparently nobody thinks that Cooper can buy the total pair and sell half to Colbert.Lubitsch's BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE has had a reputation of falling flat, most viewers not liking it because of a misreading of Colbert's character. She is seen as quite mercenary towards Cooper - selling herself to him on her terms.Actually Cooper's character is the nastier, as he is rich and figures that everything has a price. He is correct most of the time. Look at the way Colbert's aristocratic pauper of a father, Edward Everett Horton, sees his new son-in-law as a golden goose he can use. Cooper's willingness to marry Colbert somehow includes an agreement that if he is hesitant or chooses to not marry her he has to pay damages. Horton, when he realizes this, takes out a watch, and (in a most reassuring voice) says to Cooper - "Take your time my boy!", to come to a decision. Later we see Horton's wardrobe has gotten more modern and fancier.The film, script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, compares well with their script for Mitchell Leisin's MIDNIGHT (also with Colbert, but with Don Ameche and John Barrymore). There Colbert is willing to sell herself for a money marriage to (to Francis Lederer), but it is complicated by a fictitious marriage to Ameche. She really loves Ameche (a taxi driver) but she explains to him in an unexpectedly realistic moment that her parents married "for love" but poverty made them grow to hate each other. This is not found in BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE, where Colbert does not have a background like that (she is, after all, the daughter of a Marquis). Her mercenary plotting is to teach Cooper a lesson about his standards.The film has some nice work by the supporting staff, including Herman Bing as a private eye who turns out to be hiding things that Colbert learns about, and a young David Niven, who has a set of choice moments as a stand in punching bag and as a willing ear to Cooper. Coop tells Niven about his problems with Colbert, and how she is so infuriating. Niven listens respectfully. At the end, Cooper is touched by his willingness to hear what he had to say. "Albert, how much do I pay you?", Cooper asks him. Niven thinks and says, "Thirty five francs a week sir.". Cooper looks deeply into his soul, and says (shaking his head), "That's fair!"