The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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The Smiling Lieutenant
Comedy · Romance · 1931
An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.
Movie details
The Smiling Lieutenant
“Maurice Chevalier laughing and loving again in Ernst Lubitsch's sparkling cocktail of romantic merriment”
1931 Comedy · Romance 1h 29m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Smiling Lieutenant?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Platinum Blonde
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The Royal Treatment
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The Love Parade
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The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying
One Small Hitch
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On a flight home to Chicago for a family wedding, childhood friends Josh and Molly innocently agree to fake a wedding engagement to make Josh's dying father happy. Things quickly get out of hand with their two boisterous families, and a series of events causes them to pretend to be a couple and start planning a phony wedding. When the playacting begins to foster real feelings, the two must make some serious decisions: Split up and return to their lives in LA, or make a life as a couple back in Chicago?
The Merry Widow
Comedy · 1934
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
Easy Virtue
Comedy · 2008
A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
Let's Make Love
Comedy · 1960
When billionaire Jean-Marc Clement learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue, he passes himself off as an actor playing him in order to get closer to the beautiful star of the show, Amanda Dell.
I Love You Again
Comedy · 1940
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Phffft
Comedy · 1954
Robert and Nina Tracey resolve to live separate lives when their eight-year marriage dissolves into disagreements and divorce. But their separate attempts to get back out on the dating scene have a funny way of bringing them together.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Ernst Lubitsch
Written by
Samson Raphaelson · Ernest Vajda · Ernst Lubitsch
Maurice Chevalier
Lt. Nikolaus 'Niki' von Preyn
Claudette Colbert
Franzi
Miriam Hopkins
Princess Anna
Charles Ruggles
Max
George Barbier
King Adolf XV
Hugh O'Connell
Niki's Orderly
M
Maude Allen
Lady in Waiting (uncredited)
Court is in session
Put The Smiling Lieutenant on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.