Editing Ninotchka (section)

==Reception==
[[File:Douglas-Ninotchka.jpg|right|thumb|175px|Greta Garbo as Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova and Melvyn Douglas as Count Léon d'Algout]]

===Critical response===
When the film was shown at the [[Radio City Music Hall]], ''[[The New York Times]]'' film critic [[Frank S. Nugent]] praised it:{{blockquote|The comedy, through Mr. Douglas's debonair performance and those of Ina Claire as the duchess and Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart and Alexander Granach as the unholy three emissaries; through Mr. Lubitsch's facile direction; and through the cleverly written script of Walter Reisch, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, has come off brilliantly. Stalin, we repeat, won't like it; but, unless your tastes hew too closely to the party line, we think you will, immensely.<ref>[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9801EFD8153EE23ABC4852DFB7678382629EDE Nugent, Frank S]. ''The New York Times'', film review, November 10, 1939. Last accessed: December 24, 2013.</ref>}}

===Awards and nominations===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
! Ref.
|-
|rowspan="4"| [[12th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]
| [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Outstanding Production]]
| [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| {{nom}}
|align="center" rowspan="4"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1940 |title=The 12th Academy Awards (1940) Nominees and Winners |access-date=July 11, 2011 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706093728/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/13th-winners.html |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]
| [[Greta Garbo]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Story|Best Story]]
| [[Melchior Lengyel]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Screenplay]]
| [[Charles Brackett]], [[Walter Reisch]], and [[Billy Wilder]]
| {{nom}}
|-
|rowspan="2"| [[National Board of Review Awards 1939|National Board of Review Awards]]
|colspan="2"| [[National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films]]
| {{draw|4th Place}}
| align="center" rowspan="2"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1939/ |title=1939 Award Winners |publisher=[[National Board of Review]] |access-date=March 1, 2024}}</ref>
|-
| Best Acting
| Greta Garbo
| {{won}}
|-
| [[National Film Preservation Board]]
|colspan="2"| [[National Film Registry]]
| {{won|Inducted}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=March 1, 2024}}</ref>
|-
|rowspan="2"| [[1939 New York Film Critics Circle Awards|New York Film Critics Circle Awards]]
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director|Best Director]]
| [[Ernst Lubitsch]]
| {{nom}}
| align="center" rowspan="2"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nyfcc.com/awards/?awardyear=1939 |title=1939 New York Film Critics Circle Awards |publisher=[[New York Film Critics Circle]] |access-date=March 1, 2024}}</ref>
|-
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]
| Greta Garbo
| {{nom}}
|}

''Ninotchka'' is recognized as well by the [[American Film Institute]] in the [[AFI 100 Years... series]] in the following lists:

* 2000: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs]] – #52<ref>{{cite web|title=America's Funniest Movies |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=2017-01-28}}</ref>
* 2002: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions]] – #40<ref>{{cite web|title=AFI's 100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time |url=http://www.afi.com/100years/passions.aspx |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=2017-01-28}}</ref>

===Origins===
''Ninotchka'' is based on a three-sentence story idea by [[Melchior Lengyel]] that made its debut at a poolside conference in 1937, when a suitable comedy vehicle for Garbo was being sought by MGM: “Russian girl saturated with Bolshevist ideals goes to fearful, capitalistic, monopolistic Paris. She meets romance and has an uproarious good time. Capitalism not so bad, after all.”<ref name="Shaw">Shaw, Tony (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=QzIkDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16 ''Hollywood's Cold War'', p. 16]. Edinburgh University Press. {{ISBN|0748630732}}.</ref><ref name="Zolotow">Zolotow, Maurice (1977). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RMQHiGJlQ68C&pg=PA79 ''Billy Wilder in Hollywood'', p. 97]. Hal Leonard Corporation. {{ISBN|0879100702}}.</ref><ref name="Thomson">Thomson, David (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=MeAkGAnNfJYC&pg=PA104 ''The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies'', p. 104]. Macmillan. {{ISBN|0374191891}}.</ref>

===Revival===
An attempt by MGM to release ''Ninotchka'' later during [[World War II]] was suppressed on the grounds that the [[Soviet]]s were then allies of the West. The film was released after the war ended.<ref name="kennet163">Lee Kennett, ''For the Duration. . . : The United States Goes To War'' p 164 {{ISBN|0-684-18239-4}}</ref>

===Legacy===
In 1955, the [[musical theater|musical]] ''[[Silk Stockings]]'', based on ''Ninotchka'', opened on [[Broadway (theatre)|Broadway]]. Written by [[Cole Porter]], the stage production was based on ''Ninotchka's'' story and script and starred [[Hildegard Neff]] and [[Don Ameche]]. MGM then produced a [[Silk Stockings (1957 film)|1957 film version]] of the musical directed by [[Rouben Mamoulian]] and starring [[Fred Astaire]] and [[Cyd Charisse]]. Actor [[George Tobias]], who appeared uncredited in ''Ninotchka'' as the Soviet visa official, is featured in ''Silk Stockings'' as Commissar Markovitch. [[Rolfe Sedan]], who portrayed the hotel manager in ''Ninotchka'', appears uncredited as a stage manager in ''Silk Stockings''. The MGM films ''[[Comrade X]]'' (1940), starring [[Clark Gable]] and [[Hedy Lamarr]], and ''[[The Iron Petticoat]]'' (1956), starring [[Bob Hope]] and [[Katharine Hepburn]], both borrow heavily from ''Ninotchka''.

MGM had scheduled ''[[Madame Curie (film)|Madame Curie]]'' as Garbo's next film, but pleased with the success of ''Ninotchka'', the studio quickly decided to team Garbo and Douglas in another romantic comedy. ''[[Two-Faced Woman]]'' (1941) was the result and Garbo received the worst reviews of her entire career. It turned out to be her final film and [[Greer Garson]] eventually starred in ''Madame Curie''.

The Japanese filmmaker [[Akira Kurosawa]] cited ''Ninotchka'' as one of his favorite films.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Lee Thomas-Mason |title=From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/akira-kurosawa-100-favourite-films-list/ |website=Far Out |date=January 12, 2021 |publisher=Far Out Magazine |access-date= September 20, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Akira Kurosawa's Top 100 Movies! | url = http://wildgrounds.com/index.php/2009/01/17/akira-kurosawas-top-100-movies/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100327124349/http://wildgrounds.com/index.php/2009/01/17/akira-kurosawas-top-100-movies/ | archive-date = March 27, 2010 | df = mdy-all }}</ref>

Filipino writer and activist [[Ninotchka Rosca]] revealed during a 1966 Philippine congressional hearing that her pen name was inspired by the film.<ref>{{cite news|last=Monteclaro|first=Eddie|title=Woman, recorder mar riot hearing|work=[[The Manila Times]]|publisher=The Manila Times Publishing Company, Inc.|date=November 25, 1966|pages=1, 20|quote=Congress probers yesterday irksomely barred a [[Kabataang Makabayan]] women's bureau leader — Mrs. Antonia Rosca-Peña, 21 — from tape-recording their proceedings and questioned her for almost two hours on the witness stand.[...] Asked by [[Salipada Pendatun|[Salipada K.] Pendatun]] if Ninotchka was a Russian name, she said it was taken from a '[[Greta Garbo]] movie.' The audience laughed.}}</ref>

[[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|Reich Minister of Propaganda]] [[Joseph Goebbels]] remarked in his meeting notes on June 9, 1940 that "The German press should go and see the excellent American anti-Soviet film ''Ninotchka''." He would later tell multiple German actors that he thought it was one of the best films he had ever seen.<ref>As quoted in Boelcke, Willi A. The Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels: October 1939-March 1943, edited by Willi A. Boelcke; trans. Ewald Osers. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970.</ref> During the [[1948 Italian general election]] the US State Department encouraged film distributors to show the film as a means of countering the increasingly popular [[Italian Communist Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Peter |last2=Shaw |first2=Tony |title=Hollywood's Cold War |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |page=26}}</ref>

===Cultural influences===
"Colonel Ninotchka" was a character in the 1980s women's professional wrestling promotion, [[Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling]].