Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.
I tend to like the films Ernst Lubitsch, but there tend to be exceptions. The Smiling Lieutenant is one of those exceptions, although only a mild one. I went into this with the hopes of enjoying a Lubistch film the way I have in the past. I hoped for a surprise along the lines of Trouble in Paradise. That was probably too much to ask for, because not a lot of films are that good. The Smiling Lieutenant pissed me off for about half an hour and then got a lot better.
The plot is simple enough. Niki (Maurice Chevalier), a lieutenant in the Austrian royal guard meets Franzi (Claudette Colbert), the leader of an all-girl orchestra. The two are soon an item, playing chamber music together in the evening, a different kind of music overnight, and singing to each other over breakfast. One day, the king of a neighboring tiny country, King Adolf XV (George Barbier) is visiting with his daughter, Princess Anna (Miriam Hopkins). While they are on parade, Niki winks at Franzi, but Anna is convinced that he meant it specifically as an insult for her. Called on the carpet and unwilling to admit that he was playing visual footsie with his girlfriend, Niki says that the wink and smile were because of the incomparable beauty of the princess. And so, the naïve princess immediately falls for the dashing lieutenant and demands that he marry her. To prevent an international incident, he does, and that’s where the fun really starts among Niki, Franzi, and Anna.
