Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife

film by Lubitsch [1938]

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July 23, 2026

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"Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" is a 1938 film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, known for his sophisticated comedies of manners. The film stars Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert. It is based on a story about Bluebeard, a wealthy man who forbids his new wife from opening a specific door in his castle. When she disobeys, she discovers the bodies of his previous wives. Despite a script by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, the film was not a box-office success.12

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Billy Wilder
Early life and work
…first collaborating on Ernst Lubitsch’s Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938), they wrote such romantic-comedy gems as Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight (1939), Lubitsch’s Ninotchka (1939), and Howard Hawks’s Ball of Fire (1941). Arguably Wilder’s most personal work during this period was Leisen’s Hold Back the Dawn
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…first collaborating on Ernst Lubitsch’s Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938), they wrote such romantic-comedy gems as Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight (1939), Lubitsch’s Ninotchka (1939), and Howard Hawks’s Ball of Fire (1941). Arguably Wilder’s most personal work during this period was Leisen’s Hold Back the Dawn
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Ernst Lubitsch
Films of the mid- and late 1930s of Ernst Lubitsch
…and Colbert were paired in Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938), but, despite a Charles Brackett–Billy Wilder script, it also failed at the box office, and Paramount finally let Lubitsch go to MGM.
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…and Colbert were paired in Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938), but, despite a Charles Brackett–Billy Wilder script, it also failed at the box office, and Paramount finally let Lubitsch go to MGM.
Read More