A witty satire on idiot Americans abroad as well as on the Prussian aristocracy, The Oyster Princess has been called by Lubitsch biographer Herman G. Weinberg "a summing up of everything Lubitsch had learned about the art of comedy.... (In it) we find details of its satire that have since become known as 'the Lubitsch touch.' In its broadest sense, this meant going from the general to the particular, suddenly condensing into one swift, deft moment of crystallization of a scene or even the entire theme. The close-up, of course, played an important part in this... by magnifying a detail whose virtue was its laconic wit...." (in "The Lubitsch Touch"). When Ossi (Ossi Oswalda), the daughter of an American "Oyster King," reads of a friend's marriage to a count, her father promises to buy her a prince of her own. The victim recommended by their marriage broker is Prince Nucki, who lives in a run-down apartment with his bald friend Josef. When Josef is sent to scout out the prospective bride, he is introduced as the prince. What follows is one of the most lavish weddings ever filmed (both Ossi and Josef have to admit they have never eaten so well!), but the wedding night is not at all what our "princess" had in mind.