Review of Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

'Bluebeard's Eighth Wife' tells the story of how an American millionaire (Gary Cooper) marries his eighth wife (Colette Colbert), the daugher of an impoverished French aristocrat, and of how the first months of their marriage play out. It is essentially the 'Taming of the Shrew' with swapped gender roles, the difference being that instead of not wanting to marry, the shrewish party - Cooper - is all too eager. This is a pleasing comedy with brilliant dialogues, but it has a few downsides: First, it essentially consists of two independent films: one that concerns Cooper's attempts to convince Colbert of marrying him, and another one that concerns their antics once they are married. Both parts are quite different in tone. Second, I found Cooper miscast in the Bluebeard-role. His specialty were roles where he played the sensible guy, rather than someone as OTT as this millionaire. And finally, what Colbert was aiming at in the whole game became clear to me only towards the end of the film. Until then, I suspected her of wanting the money promised her in the marriage settlement in case of a divorce. To some extent, that spoiled the fun, at least for me. Still, all in all this is a very watchable Lubitsch.