The Mountain Cat (1921)

A charming lieutenant on his way to a remote fort is kidnapped by a bunch of mountain bandits. When the gang leader's daughter falls for this young officer, his captivity turns into an absurd love adventure. What in the hands of anyone else would be a simple melodrama completely derails under Lubitsch into a wacky comedy full of militaristic nonsense, wild mustaches, and infatuated rogue antics. With its exuberant decor, expressionistic sets, and anarchist humor, Ernst Lubitsch turns the army into a playground where logic mostly gets in the way. Victory celebrations without victory, soldiers who would rather dance than fight, and military maneuvers that resemble a slapstick ballet more than anything else. Die Bergkatze ('The Wildcat') is a delightfully unhinged early Lubitsch, in which the director clearly had no intention yet of sticking to a single genre or a decent plot. With live accompaniment by Bart Maris and classical music students.