Like so many Lubitsch films, the musical The Love Parade asserts that the road to romance is paved with cynicism, of which women are the chief bearers. Maurice Chevalier marries Jeanette MacDonald, ruler of a feminist queendom, and discovers his true position when the wedding ceremony pronounces them “Wife and Man.” Valet Lupino Lane and maid Lillian Roth provide an amusing commentary on their masters' affairs, while the witty plot satirizes contemporary mores as well as film/operetta conventions (MacDonald sings the opening aria in her underwear). Lubitsch revels in the artificiality of the musical form rather than trying to disguise it; at the same time, he manages to keep the fluidity of his silent films by using such devices as off-screen speech or conversations that take place, unheard, behind a window.