History: Einstein, Lubitsch made it from Germany to Palm Springs paradise

From the terrace of The Willows, the winter home of famous New York attorney Samuel Untermyer on Jan. 25, 1931, the world-renown physicist Albert Einstein made a pronouncement: "This is so beautiful out here. From now on the Einstein program every winter will be Berlin to California and Palm Springs."

For a number of years in the early 1930s that was indeed Einstein's itinerary. But Einstein wasn't the only German-born luminary or intellectual alighting upon California and the desert.

A very under-dressed famous film director Ernst Lubitsch, along with Untermyer, Einstein and Phyllis Pinney, the wife of lawyer and manager of the El Mirador, were casually photographed on the expansive lawn of the El Mirador in February of 1933.

Lubitsch is pictured barefoot, having cast off a simple slipper. His legs are naked and crossed, visible from under his bathrobe as he talks to Einstein, who seems to be deep in thought with his fingers at his chin, while Untermyer, in suit and tie, looks on, his attaché resting on the nearby table.

Lubitsch didn't even bother to dress for the more formal press picture gathered around Einstein that same day.

Lubitsch was born in Berlin and found his way, like Einstein would a few years later, to California and Palm Springs. More precisely, he found his way to Hollywood and then Palm Springs along with the rest of the movie colony. Lubitsch moved to the United States after establishing himself as a very successful director in the nascent German film industry. Hollywood dwarfed all European efforts, and the astute Lubitsch understood the future.

At the behest of Mary Pickford, one of the biggest stars in the Hollywood firmament, Lubitsch immigrated to the United States in 1922. Pickford spent considerable time in the desert herself. Lubitsch directed Pickford in the film "Rosita," which was a critical and commercial success but would constitute their entire working relationship. Having fallen out with the star, Lubitsch found himself a free agent and struck a spectacular deal with Warner Bros. for six pictures, guaranteeing him choice of both cast and crew and full discretion over the final cut.

His subsequent films were hailed as supremely sophisticated and seductively stylish. He earned the respect of his peers and was highly lauded. His distinctive aesthetic was recognizable and emulated by other filmmakers. Moving on to MGM and Paramount, he was firmly established as a top Hollywood director.

He navigated the transition to talkies brilliantly, making popular musical comedies. His films were praised by critics as masterpieces of the new genre. He was appointed Paramount's production manager, the only director to run a large studio. He supervised scores of other movies while still making his own. Lubitsch even served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for a time, presaging its dominance as a film school in the decades to come.

He would go on to direct numerous other films, several that are in the pantheon of the greatest Hollywood movies of all time. He directed Greta Garbo in "Ninotchka" and Jimmy Stewart in "The Shop Around the Corner," which would be remade into "You've Got Mail" and "Heaven Can Wait" with Don Ameche that would also be remade decades later with Warren Beatty.

Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic, wrote in 2001: "'Lubitsch was a giant,' said Orson Welles. 'His talent and originality were stupefying.' Greta Garbo, for once not alone, felt 'he was the only great director out there.' And Charlie Chaplin, something of a talent himself, said Lubitsch 'could do more to show the grace and humor of sex in a non-lustful way than any other director I've ever heard of.'"

Turan notes: "To see Lubitsch's work today, in an age that overvalues coarseness and blatancy in humor, is to experience a kind of delicacy and sophistication that almost doesn't exist anymore … the sine qua non of Lubitsch's touch was an infallible sense of what is funny … (He) constructed the most precise comic clockwork mechanisms, pitch-perfect in their slyness, their timing, their intonations and intimations. Lubitsch choreographed dialogue, he choreographed movement, he even choreographed the camera, which he felt 'should comment, insinuate, make an epigram or a bon mot, as well as tell a story.'"

In 1932 he directed one of his finest films, "Trouble in Paradise." Created in the few years before the Hays code, the movie was wildly popular and judged approvingly as "truly amoral" by critic David Thomson. After the institution of the production code, the film was withdrawn and not viewed again for decades. It was never made available on videocassette.

"Trouble in Paradise" could be an apt title for some of what goes on in Palm Springs, but today at 3 p.m. at the historic Camelot Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center is a chance to see this Lubitsch film. It isn't available on Netflix, Prime or YouTube, but the Film Society of Screwball Comedy has procured a 35mm print.

The Cultural Center website notes: "Renowned director Ernst Lubitsch brings his masterful touch to life in 'Trouble in Paradise,' where the charming thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and skilled pickpocket Lily (Miriam Hopkins) team up for a daring scam targeting the alluring perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis). However, complications arise when Gaston finds himself entangled in a romantic affair with Mme. Colet, putting their thieving scheme in jeopardy. As Gaston must choose between two captivating women, 'Trouble in Paradise' stands as a pinnacle of sophisticated comedy, featuring Lubitsch's signature sparkling dialogue, clever innuendo and elegant comic invention."

The plot description can't do justice to the film itself. The presentation will also feature a live introduction by Aliece Pickett, co-founder of the Film Society of Screwball Comedy. Pickett created a comprehensive catalog and database of screwball comedy films to be used for research, restoration and use by film enthusiasts.

Rozene Supple was one such enthusiast. She founded the Palm Springs Cultural Center along with her husband, Ric, and the pair famously, and humorously, insisted the popcorn at the Camelot Theatre would be topped with real butter.

Lubitsch died at age 55 of a heart attack. All of Hollywood mourned his untimely passing. At the funeral, prominent director and friend William Wyler remarked, "No more Lubitsch." Equally famous director Billy Wilder answered, "Worse than that. No more Lubitsch pictures."

Thanks to the Film Society of Screwball Comedy, today there is a little more Lubitsch, and a Lubitsch film: showing on the big screen, accompanied by real buttered popcorn, in the paradise of Palm Springs, where Einstein and Lubitsch visited long ago.

Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Thanks for the Memories column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Write to her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: History: Einstein, Lubitsch went from Germany to Palm Springs paradise