(132 min) Released 1937-03-26
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Stars: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore
Genres: Drama | Musical | Romance
Did the exhibitors hate this for being too long, or did audiences appreciate all the singing and singing and singing? I sure do. Lots of arias and non-opera.
We begin with JM in old woman makeup. I wouldn't have expected such a good job from that time. Then we enter the flashback...
JM conveys amour well. Here she falls in love at first listen, hearing NE before seeing him. At that meeting, he is exuberant and singing well a song suited to his voice, so Marcia is fully justified in her admiration. And he looks splendid, as does she.
At about 1.25 hours, no end was in sight so I checked the length. I wasn't bored, just amazed at how much music was dished up for us. A lot of time could have been spared by slashing an aria or three, and the story wouldn't have suffered. Clearly Louis B. Mayer, or Thalberg, or the other 3 producers, wanted to indulge us with so much music. I checked: this is the longest of JM's movies, although only a minute longer than The Firefly (1937), and 10 minutes more than Follow the Boys (1944) and The Girl of the Golden West (1938). The median and mean are 102.5 and 100.4 min for her films. The median and mean for the 135 musicals I've watched so far: 88 and 89.2 min.
Costumes and sets are beautiful too; never once thought about color. I wonder if I would have loved these at a younger age. I was attending opera 30+ years ago, so probably yes. Oh well, I've got them now.
MGM, dir. Leonard; 8
