回转姻缘 The Marriage Circle (1924)

Goodbye slapstick, hello sophistication. Lubitsch's inimitable style comes of age in his second Hollywood production, which, Hitchcock claims, is "the greatest contribution... to the cinema" In a dégagé manner, Lubitsch goes about disproving Tolstoy's adage that all happy marriages resemble each other and all unhappy marriages are unhappy in their own way. In his continental circle game of flimsily disguised desire, two couples, one happily, one unhappily married are caught in the same merry-go-round of infidelity. Revelling in the elegance and decadence of Viennese café society, the bedroom farce has the operatic flair of The Marriage of Figaro and Abduction from the Seraglio, and the sinister sensuality of Klimt. 劉別謙美國第二作，熱過身後正式展示他迥異於荷里活的無限創意，令同行無一不折服。美芝的婚姻像過期罐頭般發霉變酸，兩口子的對話句句帶刺。一天陰差陽錯給她撞上好友夏綠蒂的好情郎，從此認定填補空虛的對象，還施以最辣的引誘。夏綠蒂本如蜜糖甜的夫妻關係，一次考驗即打回原形節節敗退，最後縱未完全失守，但足以令旁觀的我們對美滿婚姻信心掃地。通達的人情與諷刺筆觸處處，劉別謙的角色不僅會發放故事能量，還首次會思想，含蓄自然帶出更濃郁的戲味。他聲稱自己最得意之作，一度違背諾言重拍成有聲版本《紅樓艷史》。