The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)

Director Ernst Lubitsch looms as one of the greats, someone on par with Hitchcock and Welles, largely due to a series of musicals he made at Paramount in the late twenties and early thirties. I had not seen a single one, until now. I adore his later period non-musicals (Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, To Be Or Not To Be) so I was "stoked"(as the kids say) when this arrived in the mail. It stars Maurice Chevalier as the titular lieutenant caught in a love triangle with musician Claudette Colbert and princess Miriam Hopkins. It was both fantastic and a little bit of a let down. There is this other musical called "Love Me Tonight" (made around the same time) also with Chevalier, that was intended for Lubitsch but instead was directed by Rouben Mamoulian. It is derided by many film people as copycat Lubitsch. I, however, think it's one of the craziest, most vibrant movies ever made; filled with long takes, dramatic lighting, and rhyming dialog. I suppose with "Smiling Lieutenant" I was expecting the same kind of cinematic invention seen in the Mamoulian film. It is of course graceful, but the camera is a bit static, the pace slower, and the songs quite terrible (the astounding song score of "Love Me Tonight" was written by Rodgers and Hart). However, in place of technical dazzle, the Lubitsch film has emotional tenderness and deep feeling. It had a swooning effect on me that had nothing to do with tracking shots or cinematography, and everything to do with love and kindness. I just wish I hadn't seen "Love Me Tonight" first.