Monte Carlo

A countess ditches her foppish prince at the altar, flees to the Riviera with a thin bankroll, and tries to win a fortune at roulette. Ernst Lubitsch’s 1930 musical comedy — a peak example of the famous “Lubitsch Touch” — lets Jeanette MacDonald’s runaway aristocrat hire a charming “hairdresser” who is actually Count Rudolph (Jack Buchanan) in disguise. Lubitsch, the Berlin-trained master of innuendo, closed doors, and worldly wit, treats early sound not as a problem but as a toy: songs slip into conversation, a train becomes an orchestra, and desire is suggested rather than spelled out. MacDonald, at her haughtiest and most musical, and Buchanan, the elegant British song-and-dance star, make the masquerade sparkle; Zasu Pitts tags along as the maid. The showstopper is “Beyond the Blue Horizon,” MacDonald singing from a rushing train while the countryside answers in chorus — Lubitsch turning a getaway into pure cinema.