I didn't think the 30s were really a decade known for having a lot of sexual and lewd movies, but this film shows that people back then were much the same way as they are now. By this, I mean it is pretty obvious the people who worked on this movie had a lot of fun doing so. There's no explicit scenes in it, but there are a decent amount of innuendoes. Despite its somewhat serious plot, it is a comedy when you get down to it. The film stars Maurice Chevalier as the title character, Lieutenant Niki von Preyn, an austrian military officer who meets a female violinist named Franzi (Claudette Colbert) one day during a performance. For Niki, it's love at first sight, and soon, the two of them are on their way to a city called Flausenthurm. While standing guard for Anna, the princess of the city (Miriam Hopkins), Niki winks and smiles at her horse carriage as a friendly gesture. Unfortunately, Anna mistakes this action for churlishness because grinning directly at a royal person is disrespectful. Niki is almost brought to military court for his actions, but after he is called into the chamber of King Adolf XV, he's able to tell Anna he committed this act because he thinks she is beautiful. He wants her to know this, so he smiled. Anna's father is not impressed with Niki's explanation and tells the princess she is not allowed to marry him under any circumstances. Anna threatens to marry an american, and her father relents. After Niki and Anna are wed, he begins to get bored of her pretty quickly and starts to search for Franzi again. Anna goes to start an argument with her about her husband's cheating and they slap each other a few times. Franzi advises Anna to abandon her regal appearance if she wants Niki to continue loving her, so her shoes, dresses, hats, and mannerisms undergo a significant change. Franzi leaves, and by the time Niki returns to the princess, she's smoking cigarettes and suddenly knows how the play the piano. Niki is now more than willing to stay with her. As is the case with many films produced before the adoption of the motion picture production censorship guidelines (commonly called Hays code), The Smiling Lieutenant features a fair amount of scenes that would never be permissible once the code was enforced. Probably the best example is the part where Colbert goes to confront Miriam Hopkins about Niki's unfaithfulness, and they end up hitting each other. This isn't that unacceptable because it's a girl hitting another girl, but if it was a man doing it, this movie would have gotten severe backlash. Although Maurice had a difficult time acting in this movie because his mother had just died, it paid off because the film was Paramount's biggest financial success of 1931. It's not an incredible movie, but as someone who likes history, it is interesting to see the emperor of Austria-Hungary make an appearance, Franz Josef. The actor playing him is not credited, but he appears shortly after Niki meets Anna.
Review of The Smiling Lieutenant
