The romantic roundelay, linking fine emotions with fine lingerie, is shadowed by the brutality of Soviet tyranny.

This one is neither crude clowning nor crude prejudice, but a literate and knowingly directed satire which lands many a shrewd crack about phony Five Year Plans, collective farms, Communist jargon and pseudo-scientific gab.

Ninotchka is delicate flirtation and political satire made into a perfect whole, and a reminder of skills that studio writers have largely lost.

Billy Wilder and Charles Bracket contributed to the screenplay, as evidenced by the number of brilliant and biting exchanges.