Editing Ninotchka (section)

==Plot==
[[File:Ninotchka (1939) trailer 3.jpg|thumb|right|[[Melvyn Douglas]], [[Greta Garbo]] and [[Richard Carle]]]]
[[File:ActGarboNinotchka.jpg|thumb|right|[[Greta Garbo]] and [[Melvyn Douglas]]]]
Iranoff ([[Sig Ruman]]), Buljanoff ([[Felix Bressart]]), and Kopalski ([[Alexander Granach]]), three agents from the Russian Board of Trade, arrive in Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy during the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]].

Count Alexis Rakonin ([[Gregory Gaye]]), a [[White russian emigre|White Russian]] [[nobleman]] reduced to employment as a waiter in the hotel where the trio are staying, overhears details of their mission and informs the former Russian Grand Duchess Swana ([[Ina Claire]]) that her court jewels are to be sold by the three men. Swana's debonair paramour, Count Léon d'Algout ([[Melvyn Douglas]]) offers to help retrieve the jewelry before it is sold.

In their hotel suite, Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski negotiate with Mercier ([[Edwin Maxwell (actor)|Edwin Maxwell]]) a prominent Parisian jeweler, when Léon interrupts the meeting. He explains that the jewels were seized illegally by the Soviet government and a petition has been filed preventing their sale or removal. Mercier withdraws his offer to purchase the jewelry until the lawsuit is settled.

The amiable, charming and cunning Léon treats the three Russians to an extravagant lunch, gets them drunk and easily wins their friendship and confidence. He sends a telegram to Moscow in their name suggesting a compromise.

Moscow, angered by the telegram, then sends Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova ([[Greta Garbo]]), a special envoy whose goal is to win the lawsuit, complete the jewelry sale and return with the three renegade Russians. Ninotchka is methodical, rigid and stern, chastising Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski for failing to complete their mission.

Ninotchka and Léon first meet on the street near the hotel, their identities unknown to one another. He flirts, but she is uninterested. Intrigued, Léon follows her to the Eiffel Tower and shows her his home through a telescope. Ninotchka tells him he might be an interesting subject of study and suggests they go to his apartment. Léon, fascinated by Ninotchka, continues to flirt and he soon falls in love with her. They kiss, but are interrupted by a phone call from Buljanoff. Both then realize they are each other's adversaries over the jewelry and Ninotchka promptly leaves Léon's apartment, despite his protestations.

The next day, Léon follows Ninotchka to a bistro where she again rebuffs him; but after valiant attempts at making her laugh, Léon finally breaks down her resistance and she falls in love with him. 
While attending to the various legal matters over the lawsuit, Ninotchka gradually becomes seduced by the west. At a dinner date with Léon where she unexpectedly meets Swana face-to-face (her rival for the jewelry and for Léon's affections), Ninotchka consumes champagne for the first time and quickly becomes intoxicated. The following afternoon, a hungover Ninotchka is awakened by Swana and discovers Rakonin has stolen the jewelry during the night. Swana has come to offer Ninotchka a proposition: the jewels will be returned and the litigation dropped if Ninotchka returns to Moscow immediately so that Swana can have Léon to herself. Ninotchka reluctantly agrees to Swana's proposal and after completing the sale of the jewelry to Mercier, she, Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski fly back to Russia.
Later that evening, Léon visits Swana and confesses his love for Ninotchka. Swana then informs Léon that Ninotchka has already left for Moscow. He attempts to follow her but is denied a Russian visa, because of his nobility.

Sometime later in Moscow, Ninotchka invites her three comrades to dinner at her [[communal apartment]] and they nostalgically recall their time in Paris. After dinner, Ninotchka finally receives a letter from Léon, but it has been completely censored by the authorities, and she is devastated.

More time passes; while in [[Constantinople]] to sell furs, Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski once again run afoul of their superiors. Against her wishes, Ninotchka is again sent by Commissar Razinin ([[Bela Lugosi]]) to investigate the situation and retrieve the trio.

After Ninotchka arrives in Constantinople, the three Russians inform her that they have opened a restaurant and will not be returning to the Soviet Union. When Ninotchka asks them who is responsible for this idea, Buljanoff points to the balcony where Léon is standing. Léon explains that he was barred from entering Russia to win Ninotchka back, so he and Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski conspired to get her to leave the country. He asks her to stay with him and she happily agrees.

The final shot in the film is of Kopalski carrying a protest sign complaining that Iranoff and Buljanoff are unfair, because his name does not illuminate on the electric sign in front of their new restaurant.