Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Year Released: 1931
Rating: 3.0
One of Lubitsch's famous early collaborations with Maurice Chevalier has the French lothario (in this picture, playing a Viennese soldier) falling in love with a violinist (Claudette Colbert), inappropriately smiling in the direction of a princess (Miriam Hopkins) from a neighboring nation, having that smile misinterpreted as an insult and then having to lie about the smile and actually marrying (!) the princess. Though the structure of this one is flimsier than usual (even for a proto-musical), it's still a movie with a light spirit and a sense of ribald fun - Chevalier's girl-hopping (from wife to mistress) would be more alienating (and slimy) if everyone in this wasn't just so damn casual and upstanding. I find it a smidge hard to believe Colbert's character could teach the virginal Hopkins how to seduce Monsieur Maurice in one quick lesson (wear sexier clothing! smoke a cigarette while playing the piano!) but maybe Hopkins is a very quick learner. Or Colbert is simply that good a teacher. It's amusing to think a misunderstood smirk (from perpetually smirking Chevalier) could lead to having fun in a bed that doesn't involve checkers. Ooh la la....
