(90 min) Released 1937-11-17
Director: Edward H. Griffith
Stars: Grace Moore, Melvyn Douglas, Helen Westley, Stuart Erwin, Margaret Hamilton
Genres: Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029043/
Watched online, really awful print visually, but ok audio.
Lots of good singing (opera arias). Typical deft performances by Douglas, Westley and Hamilton. Typical bumpkin from Erwin.
But, as the plot summary says, GM plays a singer who is such a diva (with the encouragement of her mentor(?) Westley) that she chooses to sing in Paris rather than B.A. Since trying to hold her to her contract is known to be futile because she will just claim she's ill, MD tries to cajole/trick/kidnap her into honoring his contract.
OK, but then he spends so much time with her that, despite her continued refusal to sing in B.A., MD falls in love with her. She thinks he's kidnapped her for love, so she's charmed. But when she discovers his financial motivation, she turns against him. He offers to cancel their contract just to prove his love for her. She performs under protest.
I don't care how it ended. I know she sings the title song, so I guess she capitulates romantically. Without the copious singing, this would be a "don't watch this again." Frankly, there are better ways to get a dose of opera, so I just talked myself into a 5.
Columbia, dir. Griffith; 5
