Editing The Smiling Lieutenant (section)

==Reception==
''The Smiling Lieutenant'' was Paramount's biggest grosser of 1931. Barrios claims that "Lubitsch and Chevalier were invincible".<ref name="Barrios" /> It was also named the year's "Best Ten" by ''The New York Times'', along with [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s ''[[City Lights]]'' and [[F. W. Murnau]]'s ''[[Tabu (1931 film)|Tabu]]''.<ref>Hall, Mordaunt. "Blue-Ribbon Pictures of 1931: ''The Guardsman'' Heads List of Best Ten" ''[[The New York Times]]'', New York, January 3, 1932.</ref>

Lubitsch was still in the stages of mastering sound-on-film technology and combining it with narrative: James Harvey acclaims that "technically ''The Smiling Lieutenant'' is the most accomplished of Lubitsch's early sound films. In sets, camerawork, background music, alternations of sound and silence, thus the film reaches a certain level that makes ''[[The Love Parade]]'' and ''[[Monte Carlo (1930 film)|Monte Carlo]]'' look comparatively stilted".<ref>Harvey, James (1998) "Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: From Lubitsch to Sturges", p. 22. Da Capo Press, New York. {{ISBN|0306808323}}.</ref> For [[Andrew Sarris]], ''The Smiling Lieutenant'' stands between the "lilting lyricism" of ''Love Parade'' and the "tempered ironies"<ref>Sarris, Andrew (1972). "Lubitsch in the Thirties: All Talking! All Singing! All Lubitsch!", Film Comment 8, p. 21.</ref> in ''[[Trouble in Paradise (1932 film)|Trouble in Paradise]]''.

Due to an ongoing copyright dispute with the silent-film version, ''The Smiling Lieutenant'' remained out of circulation for years and was considered as a [[lost film]] until a print [[List of rediscovered films|was discovered]] in Denmark in the 1990s.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/movies/homevideo/12dvds.html ''The New York Times'' (February 12, 2008)]</ref> When the film resurfaced, the "general elation" was followed by "an inevitable let down" due to technical problems.<ref name="Barrios" />