''The Smiling Lieutenant'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

film directed by

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; ; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; a ...

, starring

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor, and entertainer. He is best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", " Louise", " Mimi", and " Thank Heaven f ...

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, born Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/ show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway theater, Broadway productions dur ...

and Miriam Hopkins, and released by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

. It was written by Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda from the operetta '' Ein Walzertraum'' by Oscar Straus, with

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by and , which in turn was based on the novel ''Nux, der Prinzgemahl'' ("Nux the Prince Consort") by

Hans Müller-Einigen Hans Müller(-Einigen) (born 25 October 1882 in Brünn, Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Eur ...

. The film was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

. This was the first of three films directed by Lubitsch and starring Miriam Hopkins. The other two were '' Trouble in Paradise'' and '' Design for Living''.

Plot

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Lieutenant Nikolaus "Niki" von Preyn (

) meets Franzi (

), the leader of an all-female-orchestra. They soon fall in love. While standing in formation at a parade honouring the visiting royal family of Flausenthurm, Niki winks at Franzi in the crowd. Unfortunately the gesture is intercepted by Anna, the Princess of Flausenthurm ( Miriam Hopkins). The naive princess takes offence; to assuage her, the lieutenant insists that he winked and smiled at her because of her beauty. This backfires; charmed and besotted, Anna demands that she marry the lieutenant, and threatens to marry an American if this plan is thwarted. Franzi leaves Niki upon seeing him return in a royal carriage. After intervention by the Emperor of Austria, an international incident is narrowly averted by the marriage of the lieutenant and the princess, though the marriage is not consummated as Niki will only chastely kiss his bride—and his father-in-law. Homesick and lovesick, Niki wanders the streets, and encounters Franzi, who has continued to perform with her orchestra in Flausenthurm since the wedding, unable to move on. The two resume their romance. Anna finds out and confronts Franzi. During the confrontation, Franzi realizes that the princess is in fact deeply in love with the lieutenant. She decides to save the marriage by giving the dowdy princess a makeover, and they sing the duet "Jazz up your lingerie!" before Franzi departs for good. The results are a complete success as the lieutenant returns home, follows his satin-clad, cigarette-puffing wife into the bedroom and closes the door – opening it briefly to give the audience a last song and suggestive wink.

Cast

as Lieutenant Nikolaus "Niki" von Preyn *

as Franzi * Miriam Hopkins as Princess Anna * Charles Ruggles as Max * George Barbier as King Adolf XV * Hugh O'Connell as Niki's Orderly *

Granville Bates Granville Bates (January 7, 1882 – July 8, 1940) was an American character actor and bit player, appearing in over ninety films. Biography Bates was born in Chicago in 1882 to Granville Bates, Sr., a developer and builder, and Adaline Bates ...

as Bug Collector (uncredited) * Cornelius MacSunday as Emperor Franz Josef (uncredited)

Production

The film was not made under pleasant circumstances: the shift to the Astoria, New York, studios accounts for the sense of confinement on set.Barrios, Richard (1995). ''A Song In The Dark: The Birth of Musical Film'', p. 344. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Chevalier described performing – "smiles and cute winks of the eye" – a "mechanical display of technique" due to grief over his mother's death. Lubitsch also played referee between Colbert and Hopkins, who were determined to be shot from the same angle. Lubitsch encouraged their dispute that suited their characters on screen.Eyman, Scott (2000) "Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise. London", p. 169. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. . Scenes from the film were included in the 1931 promotional film by Paramount, ''

The House That Shadows Built ''The House That Shadows Built'' (1931) is a feature compilation film from Paramount Pictures, made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. The film was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theat ...

''.

Reception

''The Smiling Lieutenant'' was Paramount's biggest grosser of 1931. Barrios claims that "Lubitsch and Chevalier were invincible". It was also named the year's "Best Ten" by ''The New York Times'', along with

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

's ''

City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American synchronized sound film, sound romance film, romantic comedy drama, comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a ...

'' and F. W. Murnau's '' Tabu''. Lubitsch was still in the stages of mastering sound-on-film technology and combining it with narrative: James Harvey acclaims that "technically ''The Smiling Lieutenant'' is the most accomplished of Lubitsch's early sound films. In sets, camerawork, background music, alternations of sound and silence, thus the film reaches a certain level that makes ''

The Love Parade ''The Love Parade'' is a 1929 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, involving the marital difficulties of Queen Louise of Sylvania (MacDonal ...

'' and ''

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

'' look comparatively stilted". For

Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Kat ...

, ''The Smiling Lieutenant'' stands between the "lilting lyricism" of ''Love Parade'' and the "tempered ironies" in '' Trouble in Paradise''. Due to an ongoing copyright dispute with the silent-film version, ''The Smiling Lieutenant'' remained out of circulation for years and was considered as a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

until a print was discovered in Denmark in the 1990s. When the film resurfaced, the "general elation" was followed by "an inevitable let down" due to technical problems.

"The Lubitsch Touch"

The notion of "The Lubitsch Touch" is used to describe the visual comment or joke that becomes a trademark or signature of Lubitsch's films.Thompson, Kristin (2005) "Herr Lubitsch Goes To Hollywood: German and American Film After World War I", p. 126. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam. .

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...

defines the touch in relation to ''The Smiling Lieutenant'': "It was the elegant use of the Superjoke. You had a joke, and you felt satisfied, and then there was one more big joke on top of it. The joke you didn't expect. That was the Lubitsch touch." The ultimate Superjoke is that at the end of the film, "the wrong girl gets the man".

References

External links

* * * *
Criterion Collection essay
by Michael Koresky {{DEFAULTSORT:Smiling Lieutenant, The 1931 films 1931 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films American musical comedy films American black-and-white films Films based on Austrian novels American films based on plays Films based on operettas Films based on adaptations Films set in Vienna Films set in Europe Films set in the 1910s Films set in fictional countries Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Ernst Lubitsch American remakes of German films Sound film remakes of silent films Films scored by Oscar Straus 1930s rediscovered films Rediscovered American films 1931 musical comedy films American romantic musical films 1930s romantic musical films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films Films with screenplays by Samson Raphaelson English-language romantic comedy films English-language romantic musical films English-language musical comedy films