The Oyster Princess

Ossi, daughter of the American oyster king Quaker, hears that a friend has married a prince and asks her father to buy her one too. He treats it as a purchase and hires a broker. The candidate prince has no money and sends his servant in his place. Ossi marries without knowing who is standing opposite her. Ernst Lubitsch's film from 1919 is among the most extravagant works of German silent comedy. The excess of wealth is delivered visually throughout: hundreds of servants, endless halls, footmen with one task each. The best-known passage is the foxtrot sequence at the wedding, where music, dance and camera turn together into a kind of frenzy. Ossi Oswalda takes the lead; Lubitsch made a run of comedies with her. Victor Janson plays the father and Harry Liedtke the prince. Who it's for: Viewers who like silent comedy, early Lubitsch, and satire of the rich. Who it's not for: The humour is built on repetition and the narrative is very simple. The picture of America is also nothing but the German clichés of its period.