History Film / Ninotchka

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Razinin tells Ninotchka about the report from Constantinople about Bujlianoff, Iranoff and Kopalski ("How can the Bolshevik cause gain respect among the Muslims if your three representatives Bujlianoff, Iranoff and Kopalski get so drunk that they throw a carpet out of their hotel window and then complaint to the management that it didn't fly?"), Ninotchka clearly suppresses a chuckle.

* LivingPhoto: The titular heroine has a photograph of Lenin on her nightstand. At one point, after she had a great night out with her lover, Lenin changes his stern look into a smile, reflecting Ninotchka's character development into a DefrostingIceQueen.

* InternalReveal: When Leon learns who Ninotchka really is.

* FailedFutureForecast: Before the film's release, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII broke out and ruined the premise. Hence, there's a title card which rather artfully tells us that the movie takes place before the war.

** Leon goes to the bar after walking a drunk Ninotchka to the powder room and orders a double brandy. When a waiter informs him that she's spreading communistic propaganda there, Leon orders a triple brandy.

%%* TheHedonist: Leon, in the beginning.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: One of the waiters at Ninotchka's hotel is a White Russian count.

* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: The other end of the ideological spectrum, the Blonde Communist Sex Kitten.

* SugaryMalice: When Swana and Ninotchka meet at a party, Swana makes a passive-aggressive remark about the dress. Ninotchka says that it must be a strange sight, but the proletariat women aren't embarrassed to wear low-cut gowns because they no longer have cuts from the Cossacks' whips. Swana lightly replies that the whips were a mistake--they should have used guns instead.

* GayParee

* TheHedonist: Leon, in the beginning.

* ProtagonistTitle

* TheSpock: Ninotchka, in the beginning.

* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Ninotchka's worldview in the beginning.

* UptightLovesWild: With a {{genderflip}} from the usual pattern.

* BeyondTheImpossible: Ninotchka is somehow able to climb up the staircase to the top of the Eiffel Tower within three minutes. Anyone with first-hand experience can tell you it would take a couple hours to do so in real life.

* OffscreenTeleportation: Ninotchka insists on taking the stairs at the Eiffel Tower. Leon takes the elevator. When he gets to the observation platform she's there to meet him. It can also double as an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome for Ninotchka.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: After being indignant for a few moments, Leon joins in the uproarious laughter in the café when he tips his chair over onto the floor--it wasn't how he intended, but he ''did'' get Ninotchka to laugh after all.
** When Razinin tells Ninotchka about the report from Constantinople about Bujlianoff, Iranoff and Kopalski ("How can the Bolshevik cause gain respect among the Muslims if your three representatives Bujlianoff, Iranoff and Kopalski get so drunk that they throw a carpet out of their hotel window and then complaint to the management that it didn't fly?"), Ninotchka clearly suppresses a chuckle.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: After being indignant for a few moments, Leon joins in the uproarious laughter in the cafe when he tips his chair over onto the floor--it wasn't how he intended, but he ''did'' get Ninotchka to laugh after all.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: Before the film's release, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII broke out and ruined the premise. Hence, there's a title card which rather artfully tells us that the movie takes place before the war.

The story was later remade as the musical ''Film/SilkStockings,'' with music by Cole Porter, which was [[RecursiveAdaptation itself adapted]] into a 1957 {{Creator/MGM}} film with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the Douglas and Garbo parts, respectively.

* BeyondTheImpossible: Ninotchka is somehow able to climb up the staircase to the top of the Eiffel Tower within three mintues. Anyone with first-hand experience can tell you it would take a couple hours to do so in real life.

* SugaryMalice: When Swana and Ninotchka meet at a party, Swana makes a passive-aggressive remark about the dress. Ninotchka says that it must be a strange sight, but the proletariat women aren't embarrassed to wear low-cut gowns because they no longer have cuts from the cossacks' whips. Swana lightly replies that the whips were a mistake--they should have used guns instead.

* OffscreenTeleportation: Ninotchka insists on taking the stairs at the Eiffel Tower. Leon takes the elevator. When he gets to the observation platform she's there to meet him.

* BadBoss: Komissar Razinin is feared by pretty much all of his underlings, as he has the power to order deportations to [[PlaceWorseThanDeath Siberia]].I

* BadBoss: Komissar Razinin is feared by pretty much all of his underlings, as he has the power to order deportations to [[PlaceWorseThanDeath Siberia]].

* IdleRich: When Ninotchka ask Leon what he is doing for a living, his response suggests "nothing".