The Smiling Lieutenant is a standard early Maurice Chevalier musical comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch making the most of pre-code laxness to wryly convey comic chauvinism. Co-starring Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins, its amoral protagonist's dilemma of deciding between the two hinges on their sex appeal that one will willingly sacrifice the relationship in order to placate the conflicted Romeo.
Rife with double entendre and Chevalier's care free horn dog style its broad insinuations crosses the line of semi-crass and silly that Lubitsch handles far better before in The Love Parade (29) and after in The Merry Widow (34). In both theses cases Chevalier is working with "prude" Jeanette McDonald who found "hands on" Maurice a literal pain in the butt that may in some way elevated the give and take between the two on screen that the Smiling Lieutenant fails to achieve.
Rife with double entendre and Chevalier's care free horn dog style its broad insinuations crosses the line of semi-crass and silly that Lubitsch handles far better before in The Love Parade (29) and after in The Merry Widow (34). In both theses cases Chevalier is working with "prude" Jeanette McDonald who found "hands on" Maurice a literal pain in the butt that may in some way elevated the give and take between the two on screen that the Smiling Lieutenant fails to achieve.