by Allan Fish
(USA 1931 88m) DVD1
Just like a melody
p/d Ernst Lubitsch w Ernest Vajda, Ernst Lubitsch, Samson Raphaelson operetta “A Waltz Dream” by Leopold Jacobson, Felix Doermann ph George J.Folsey ed Merrill White m Oscar Straus, Clifford Grey md Adolph Deutsch art Hans Dreier cos Travis Banton
Maurice Chevalier (Lieutenant Niki), Miriam Hopkins (Princess Anna), Claudette Colbert (Franzi), Charles Ruggles (Max), George Barbier (King Adolf XV), Elizabeth Patterson (Baroness Von Schwadel), Hugh O’Connell (Orderly), Robert Strange (Adjutant Von Rockoff), Janet Reade (Lily),
It’s time to once more take a journey back to one of the favourite times and places in movie history, that carefree Vienna before the wars where biergartens and dance halls alike reverberated to the sound of Strauss waltzes (in actual fact, here the waltzes of the unrelated Oscar Straus, but it makes little difference). Like Von Stroheim and Ophuls, Lubitsch loved that old Vienna and The Smiling Lieutenant is his greatest cinematic remembrance of those times as well as being the peak of his series of operettas of the early talkie years.
Like all such operettas, the plot is dispensable, focusing on a young lieutenant with an eye for the ladies who falls for a female band leader and violinist. However, an etiquette faux pas sees him brought before the princess daughter of the visiting king of Flausenthurm, who promptly falls in love with him. Our lieutenant thus has to choose between a marriage to a princess and the real love of his life.
Such things can, of course, only end unhappily for someone, yet that very underpinning note of sadness is vital to films set in Vienna. Imagine, for example, The Wedding March of Letter from an Unknown Woman if they had ended happily? Operettas such as this may be intrinsically dated in parts of their dialogue, but the dialogue is secondary to the music and visual feel. Even so, choice exchanges do shine through, such as when Chevalier and Ruggles eye up Colbert and Chevalier says “do you know who she reminds me of? Your wife.” Ruggles looks aghast and replies, “oh, wait a minute, this girl is beautiful.” Or even more memorably the exchange between Hopkins and Barbier as impoverished royalty travelling to Vienna bitching about Austria’s imperial status (“it’s only in the last 700 years that they’ve gotten anywhere”).
The most memorable aspect of Lieutenant, though, is its wonderfully pre-code atmosphere. Here’s a film happy with its lovers not just discussing dinner, but breakfast, too. Happy to revel in the subtleties of sexual innuendo and even explain them (“when we like someone, we smile. When we want to do something about it, we wink.”). You certainly couldn’t have had a song such as the delightful “Jazz up your Lingerie” post 1934, let alone seen Hopkins doing just that and transforming from giggling young girl with a knowledge of life learnt entirely from a Royal Encyclopaedia (with all the interesting bits left out) to a glamorous, sexy young woman. Chevalier, for his part, is at his peak here, seemingly relishing the change of being without Jeanette MacDonald and getting two for the price of one. There is truly no other man who could get away with singing a line such as “you put glamour in the grapefruit, you put passion in the prunes.” Hopkins, too is quite a delight, showing how the Hays Code lead to the onset of brittleness that would blight her later career. Yet in many ways it’s Colbert you most remember, quite intoxicating in her only musical role, made before the onset of stardom that gave her the right to be only photographed from one side, and before de Mille vamped her up in asses milk. Her mournful waltz theme haunts the entire film, and when she drifts away into the darkness, it’s not without a tinge of sadness that she does so.
Lieutenant remains Lubitsch’s greatest musical, irritatingly unavailable to home viewing but always ripe for rediscovery. And if Mamoulian’s Love me Tonight may now seem a richer film, this is still a delicious soufflé in its own right.
How The Smiling Lieutenant made the ‘Elite 70’:
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Allan, you make a strong case for this being Lubitsch’s best early sound musical. (It’s my own second favorite.) The pre-Code raciness, Lubitsch’s ability to evoke such a vivid atmosphere, and the three stars at their peak–these are all reasons to love this movie. I found your observations about Hopkins and Colbert especially acute. Hopkins does lack that brittleness that characterized her later work, and Lubitsch seemed to be able to find qualities in her that no other director could quite manage to bring out. This, “Design for Living,” and “Trouble in Paradise” are my favorite Hopkins performances I’ve seen. And I absolutely agree that even with Chevalier and Hopkins, it is Colbert who makes the strongest impression. She is wonderfully relaxed, playful, and sexy. My favorite part of the movie is when she takes Hopkins’s gauche princess in hand and helps her jazz up not only her lingerie but her whole image by cutting loose and letting her sexuality emerge.
As you say, the evocation of old Vienna is great, together with the pre-Code atmosphere and the Straus music – I was wondering if he was any relation and you have answered that, Allan. I agree Colbert gives the finest performance (great scenes of her playing the violin) and at times, in the two scenes where she is leaving and effacing herself, the film tips from comedy to the possibility of tragedy. She has a bitter line when she comments on the double standard, saying that a woman who started by staying with breakfast won’t be invited to stay for dinner.
But I do also like Hopkins in this and noticed how she even walks in a strange way in the earlier part of the film, with her head slightly bowed, to give the impression of a woman not in tune with her own body. I like the scene where her father brings the chequers board into the bedroom to try to cheer her up after being rejected by Chevalier – and the way she uses that same chequers board as a method of seduction later!
Allan – Great post on a delightful film. It’s so silly and wonderful, and Chevalier is such a hoot. I absolutely agree about Colbert’s performance, she is wonderful in this. By the way, the film is available to watch in its entirety on You Tube.
– Like Von Stroheim and Ophuls, Lubitsch loved that old Vienna and The Smiling Lieutenant is his greatest cinematic remembrance of those times as well as being the peak of his series of operettas of the early talkie years.-
Allen I quite agree with this statement. I’ve mentioned on this site a few times before, and even during the countdown, that Chevalier is not my cup of tea. However, this film is marvelous and is the best thing he was ever in. I actually don’t mind him here, because Colbert and Hopkins are so wonderful and Lubitsch’s direction seems effortless and is perfection indeed. I love Colbert and Hopkins in this film, especially in the “Jazz Up Your Lingerie” sequence. It’s a memorable scene and song in this fine musical.
“The most memorable aspect of Lieutenant, though, is its wonderfully pre-code atmosphere.”
I couldn’t agree with you more. I like the film quite a bit as well, though my favorite of the Lubitsch musicals remains ONE HOUR WITH YOU. Chavalier and Colbert are at the top of their game and bring some amazing chemistry to this ever witty confection. Splendid review as always.
For what it’s worth the film is in fact out on DVD as part of a Lubitsch box set as well. That set also has Love Parade, One Hour With You, and Monte Carlo. All are very solid though I must admit I kind of missed Chevalier in Monte Carlo, since Jack Buchanan seemed to be tossed into the Maurice role in that one.