1h 25min | Comedy, History, Musical | 17 March 1944
Director: Harry Joe Brown
Stars: Nelson Eddy, Charles Coburn, Constance Dowling, Shelley Winters, Johnnie Davis, Percy Kilbride, Otto Kruger
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036988/
Public domain, but decent print.
Very strange that Shelley Winters is shown in the poster in '44-style cheesecake pose when she's dressed as a 1650 maiden for the whole film; this is her 4th of 116 films; I don't know the prior 3 films, but she must have made an impression in that sort of outfit. She chases Johnnie Davis, he resists. He sings, but doesn't use his bluesy voice (disappointing).
NE has comic chops! He has good facial expressions: restrained but definite. He makes only 2 more films after this: 1 Disney animation, 1 unavailable musical.
The Indians are named Tammany and Big Muscle (took me a while to catch Tammany). The young black boy who polishes Stuyvesant's silver-covered peg leg is named Sam, and is not listed in the credits.
This is adapted from the Weill/Anderson musical play, with Walter Huston originating Peter Stuyvesant. I have heard WH singing September Song many times in the past, and you can find it online. It sung as a lament about time slipping away. It's not used that way here; instead it's Stuyvesant's attempt to hasten marriage to the young maid; rather lecherous.
Songs performed (9 chapters at 10 min intervals). Everything is sung by NE unless noted otherwise.
Notes on the writers of songs, if only to show how many were not from the play:
(1) Music by Kurt Weill, Lyrics by Maxwell Anderson (also get credit for the book of the play)
(2) Lyrics by Sammy Cahn, Music by Jule Styne
(3) Music by various, Lyrics by Forman Brown
- ch1. ?the new governor of Amsterdam arrives today?: opening number, passes among citizens
- ch1. There's Nowhere to Go But Up (1)
- ch2. Holiday (music var, lyrics by NE), sung by townspeople & Johnnie Davis
- ch2. Let's Make Tomorrow Today (3)
- ch3. Love Has Made This Such a Lovely Day (2)
- ch4. very good gypsy (flamenco-ish) dance; Carmen Amaya can do a semi-aeroplane (arms aren't fully extended) very fast. Interesting camera choices.
- ch5. Zuyder Zee (2)
- ch5. September Song (1), Sung by Charles Coburn
- ch6. Jail Song (Oh Woe!) (3; music KW, lyrics by NE & FB)
- ch6. One More Smile (2)
- ch7. The One Indispensable Man (1)
- ch7. Be Not Hasty, Maiden Fair (3)
- ch8. Carmen Amaya dances again.
- ch8. Sing Out (3)
- ch9. Let's Make Tomorrow Today (3) reprise
- ?didn't find this: It Never Was You (1)
Indie, distr. UA, dir. Brown; 6+
