If there is a trace of Oscar Strauss in the music, it escapes me. This is a Maurice Chevalier vehicle at most and shows him at his most - not "best" or "worst". The sound-action-music combo is labored here with examples of people talking, visually, covered up with music, and other instances of singing where the camera is glued the the actors' mouths. The train-set "trains" are clumsy and transparently fake and the "rat-a-tat" leitmotif (for all the ooh-la-las) pushed well beyond the point. This is the Maurice Chevalier show starring Maurice Chevalier with an occasional bow from the great Lubitsch (no irony here) but that's all. It's an early talkie and we are constantly reminded that it is.

in other words his penis, is exclaimed at one point by Lieutenant Maurice Chevalier to a young Claudette Colbert with their love affair heating up. The sexual innuendo both uttered and shown in this Ernst Lubitsch pre Production Code picture is constant and delicious, resulting in a delightfully fey and elaborate but short eighty minutes following an admittedly batty plot and some note-lucky singing of a few rather dull tunes. Eyebrow-raising lyrics though! It's relentlessly charming with no scenes of a sexual, swearing or violent nature or anything remotely disgusting either; it's all in the mind – which is also worth bearing in mind is as Frank Zappa once sang, the ugliest part of the body.Charlie Ruggles begins by telling his friend Chevalier he's in love with Colbert and then watching his friend swiftly woo and win her for successful and successive nights of passion and mornings of breakfast. Until the day Chevalier smiles at her while on duty but gets publicly misinterpreted instead as having smiled – and winked, meaning let's do it – at the King's plain daughter Miriam Hopkins. How it all turns out is slightly dissatisfying to me, but it was a difficult problem to resolve in a gentlemanly way without a Code to follow. Although I know that even with all the slyness on screen it would have the last thing on their minds in 1931 to portray, what a film it would have been if there had been a concluding Three-Way! The Paramount production values were enormous, the sets intricate and fascinating, the romantic atmosphere under the gleaming studio arc-lights palpable, the cast superb, the display of freshness of youth and optimism appealing and total, and the comparisons with Love Me Tonight, One Hour With You and even Trouble In Paradise justified. But imho it just wasn't as good as any of those masterpieces. There's a Lubitsch touch in here that can sum up the difference: at one point two pillows on a soon-to-be consummation of marriage bed are helpfully moved closer together but then one pillow is even more helpfully put on top of the other. Not offensive at all - but not very subtle either, and if coitus really was to follow the pillows would more than likely be in an awkward position. The Lubitsch Code of what all men want is sex then romance and what all women want is romance then sex was never more apparent than in this, and it depends upon your personal point of view whether you find that point of view charming, childish or irrelevant. And the suddenly worldly-wise Colbert nonchalantly waved at the suddenly renewed Hopkins over her shoulder without looking back and without a care so that made everything alright…All that said it's an utterly wonderful film which as I've put for some other perceived-to-be ancient films will still be watched and/or puzzled over in many generations time, while all of today's realistic and amoralistic efforts are long forgotten.

The smiling Lieutenant begins as a sweet,funny and old fashioned operetta and finishes as one of the most daring,surprising and irresistible musicals of all time.I'ts Lubitsch at his best:a sort of Ninotchka of his musical period.The story is simple: a seductive lieutenant is in love with a musician,Franzi.When he smiled to her during the passage of a little country's princess,the princess interpret wrongly his intention and decide to marry him.Some months later,unhappy husband of a unhappy wife he find Franzi again...But spoilers herein and here is the most brilliant point of the script:Chevalier doesn't end with Franzi but his own wife after the musician gave her some "lessons" of seduction.The actors are all quite good:Maurice Chevalier is as charming and funny as always.Claudette Colbert great in one of her earlier performance.And she shows a barely known talent for singing.But I think the first prize comes to the Miriam Hopkins,in the princess's part she is just magnificent.She's as convincing as the cute and old falhsioned dove as the femme fatale.I've already seen a bit of his comic talent in "Trouble in Paradise" in which she does an exhilarating naive secretary .She's even better there. Charlie Ruggles does a nice although too short demonstration of his comic talent.There's not so much song in it but they're all great.The lieutenant "Ra-Ta-Ta-Ta'" acts as a pleasant leitmotiv."Breakfast is time for love" has the soft charm of One Hour With You.But my favorite stays "Jazz Up Your Lingerie"Certainly one of the greatest number of all time!

Among some movie buffs, there is a line of thought about Gene Kelly that he comes off as an unlikeable and smug jerk. Those people have never seen a film starring Maurice Chevalier. Kelly might stalk you until you fall for him, and a little more creepily than Fred Astaire would, but at least you know he'd probably stick around afterward. Chevalier, not so much. Behind that gigantic smile lies a snake. His thick French accent may have been sexy back in the day, but hearing it now just ups his jerk percentage higher and higher. Honestly, though, I love the guy. He's such a goofy character. He may be a cad, but he's an entertaining one. I shake my head at how naughty he is, but always with a grin on my lips. Chevalier is at his most delightfully awful in The Smiling Lieutenant, playing a philandering Viennese officer currently courting violinist Claudette Colbert. During a ceremony honoring royalty visiting from postage stamp-sized Flausenthurm, Chevalier smiles, laughs and winks at Colbert. The princess of Flausenthurm (Miriam Hopkins) catches it, thinks its for her, and demands that something be done about it. Queue the shotgun wedding, and Maurice is in hot water, now wedded to a wet blanket and in love with a hot tomato. The movie is pretty raunchy by 1931 standards. Unsurprisingly, the film was considered lost for many years. I'm sure the Hayes Code enforcers would have been quite happy with burning every print. There's a ton of sex being had by the characters, and there's a whole song dedicated to women's underwear. Seriously. Claudette Colbert teaches Miriam Hopkins about modern fashions in "Jazz Up Your Lingerie", easily the best number in the film and, in my mind, one of the weirdest and most entertaining in cinema history. I'd have to do some extensive looking into all the musicals I've ever seen, but I'd estimate that this is top five material. Hopkins completely steals the movie. The liner notes in the Eclipse Lubitsch Musicals set claims that it is her first film, but IMDb lists at least one earlier feature. The plot is very silly; one wouldn't imagine that it could contain any real emotion. But I actually did feel for Hopkins after Chevalier refused to sleep with her on their wedding night. This is where you can't help but hate Maurice. I also liked George Barbier, who plays Hopkins' father. And one of my favorite character actors, Charles Ruggles, appears very briefly at the beginning.