The Guardsman—a huge hit on Broadway in 1924— was brought to the screen in 1931, with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne reprising their stage roles as married actors.

In order to test his jealous suspicions, Karl hatches a plan to impersonate a Russian singer, Vassily Vassilievitch, and romance Maria in that guise.

[...] 'The Guardsman,' by previous demonstration, is a story that's hard to beat; the score from the Straus operetta, on which the present title is based, is packed with melodious songs [...] Miss Stevens and Mr. Eddy are not only able to sing at proper intervals the score of 'The Chocolate Soldier,' in which they are presumably playing—such old favorites as 'My Hero' [...] and the title song—but they are also able to wrestle amusingly off stage with the complications of 'The Guardsman.'

'[10] Regarding the performances, Crowther praised Stevens as "a charming and talented singer with a surprising ability to act [...] nicely suited for the role of the wife to a man who is so jealous that he assumes the disguise of another in order to test her.

"[9] On the other hand, Crowther observed of her co-star that "Mr. Eddy is an utter revelation in the character and costume of a mad Cossack, which is what he temporarily pretends to be.