The Grand Duchess And The Waiter (1926)
Director:
Malcolm St. Clair
Writers:
Alfred Savoir (play), John Lynch (adaptation), Pierre Collings
Stars:
Adolphe Menjou, Florence Vidor, Lawrence Grant, George Beranger, Dot Farley, Barbara Pierce
Though his career went into decline in the talkie era, director Mal St. Clair was responsible for some of the funniest, frothiest film fare of the 1920s. Based on a tried-and-true stage play by Alfred Savoir, The Grand Duchess and the Waiter stars Florence Vidor and Adolphe Menjou as the title characters. Menjou isn't really a waiter at all, but a Parisian millionaire in disguise. He poses as one of the hired help so as to come into close proximity with the love of his life, beautiful noblewoman Vidor. The stars work together as copacetically here as they did in another classic Mal St. Clair-directed silent, Are Parents People? (1925).