Film director, actor, and producer Ernst Lubitsch rose to fame in the 1910s in Germany, and emigrated to Hollywood in 1929. In the United States his sophisticated comedies were highly successful, and he was made director of production at Paramount in 1935. The "Lubitsch Touch" was a tongue-in-cheek social commentary style full of sexual innuendo, which exposed and ridiculed social conventions. It was evident in films such as Lady Windermere's Fan (1925) and the Greta Garbo vehicle Ninotchka (1939).

Further Reading:

Eyman, Scott. Laughter in Paradise. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Hake, Sabine. Passions and Deceptions: The Early Films of Ernst Lubitsch. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1992.