Muses in my midst II

(Director extraordinaire Ernst Lubitsch is shown in a trailer for his 1934 film version of "The Merry Widow.")

Like every other red-blooded American, I spend countless hours trying to decide which film director would be most ideal for putting my life on celluloid. The obvious answer is Ernst Lubitsch. For Lubitsch, unlike any other director, was able to rhyme elegance, wit, grace and style to create shimmering Art Deco dreamscapes. He taught Garbo to laugh, Jeanette MacDonald to glisten and Jack Benny how to turn his persona into some of the greatest comic acting since the Comedie-Francaise. If he could make Chevalier's trademark leer into a cinematic sensation, just think what the old Teutonic pro could have done with Keith A. Joseph's peculiarities.