Luna nueva

I first saw "New Moon" last month on Turner Classic Movies. It is a charming, beautiful movie. The contemporaneous New York Times movie critic said that the chemistry between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy is astonishing and I agree. The story is convoluted and predictable. The music is sensational. You will remember many of the songs forever. I love old movies, I think the movies from the 30's and 40's are the finest. "New Moon" pushed "Bringing up Baby" out of my favorite movie slot. It's just a wonderful movie. She is ravishing, he is an alpha male and their singing is beautiful. The story is sweet and emotionally satisfying. I love this movie.

These people are marvelous. The woman star is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and the man is beyond handsome, and these gorgeous people can sing, and sing beautifully. I've been unable to get the music out of my head. It is romantic and gorgeous and unforgettable. The story is old fashioned and as different from today's movies as daylight is from night. This movie is not edgy or raw, it is just the opposite. Just a wonderful emotional experience. (At the crack of dawn, my mother in law (we are staying with them for the weekend) dragged me out of bed and said that I had to see this movie and although we have little in common when it comes to taste in clothes and many other things, she was entirely right about this movie. Thank you Gina.)

If you love the collaborations of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald you will like New Moon very much. All of them are immensely fun to watch, though their best is between this and Maytime. It is not without imperfections, the script can get very corny(though the "men are more lenient than goats" and "anger can make you very charming mademoiselle...exchange" are nice), and while with a certain innocence and charm the story is very creaky, though we can honestly say by now that in operetta the story has never been the strongest component. However the production values are a pleasure to look at, New Moon is crisply shot and boasts beautiful costumes and sets. The score is whimsical and lush, while the songs are just wonderful with marvellously witty lyrics. Standing out in particular are One Kiss, Lover Come Back to Me, Stout-Hearted Men and especially Wanting You. The songs are very nicely staged in the film, Stout-Hearted Men are full of lively gusto that is immense fun to watch while Wanting You is kept simply and is both adorable and touching. New Moon is solidly directed and doesn't feel like a bore at all, despite the script and the story not being the absolute best they could have been. The supporting cast are uniformly good, but it is Nelson and Jeanette MacDonald that make the film so worthwhile. They work beautifully together, and sing and act with great energy and appealing tones. MacDonald is always charming, and has always been the better actress, though Eddy is actually much more comfortable than he was in Naughty Marietta(the best I've seen him though is Chocolate Soldier with Rise Stevens). While both sound great, Eddy is in particularly wonderful voice, his rich, warm masculine tones have always been more preferable to MacDonald's still sweet if slightly thin and trebly voice. Both have moments to shine, they are great in their duets Wanting You and Lover Come Back to Me, but MacDonald is very touching in One Kiss and Eddy literally goes for it, attacking with such liveliness and gusto, in Stout-Hearted Men. Overall, a very nice film, maybe not for all tastes but for Eddy-MacDonald fans it's a treat. 8/10 Bethany Cox

New Moon is filled with great music and lyrics. Nelson Eddy's fine looks and body language will turn on the ladies in my opinion. Only in hindsight of the full collection of their movies I found this movie looking like a training ground for both actors. However their embraces and smiles at times told me they enjoyed each others company. For a while many thought of them as lovers outside the films. I have often commented to my wife in saying "How could you not fall in love with a leading lady like Jeanette MacDonald singing those wonderful songs." I would highly recommend "New Moon" and all other of their movies. My favorite is The Girl of the Golden West.

New Moon (1940 MGM) starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy is by far the best movie these two super star operetta singers provided for the USA and world public in the years before World War II during the Golden Age Of Hollywood.

It is one of the last and best of the black and white movie costume musicals, and is dazzling in every way. Every film buff should obtain and screen this incredible movie often.

The two stars, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, appeared in two widely and justifiably honored movies before this one......Naughty Marietta (1935 MGM) and also Rosemarie (1937 MGM), and were incredible in both.

They managed to turn the unusual trick of skillful acting combined with singing music in the range and with the obvious ability of true opera stars (Nelson Eddy later provided wonderful singing of famous opera arias in "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met" sequence part of the Make Mine Music [1946 Disney] animated cartoon show.)

In addition to wonderful singing, MacDonald and Eddy provide actor performances comfortable and delightful to watch, the kind of acting people from all backgrounds could feel comfortable with and enjoy. They were natural actors of high talents and also singers of unparalleled gifts. The entire history of world cinema never saw their equal before or since.

The chemistry between MacDonald and Eddy is breathtaking....at times understated and amazingly carefree considering the pomp and glamor always part of their costumed and sumptuously decorated surroundings, and at times intimate to a level of sexual believability almost "x" rated. but it never occurred to the censors to object to their movies or performances or for the public, even the most conservative part of it, to object to the acting and love duet singing these two super stars provided. They were in a class by themselves, never to be forgotten, always to be cherished, probably never to be duplicated at any time in the future.....they were to musical performing arts what Shakespeare was to dramatic play writing....the best of the best.

The camera work includes many night time scenes and moving scenes tracking marching men, galloping horses, and sumptuous dances and walks in formal gardens in New Orleans mansions part of it all. So, too, are wonderful special effects sequences showing a storm at sea which wrecks the large sailing ship which takes the main characters away from New Orleans, deposits them on a lonely island, and is wrecked by a storm which somehow does not drown or harm the endangered boat passengers.

Somehow, it is all believable, and one can never take one's eyes off of the screen, or stop being interested and believing in the story, rooting for the main characters as they face and overcome one travail after the other.

New Moon (1940 MGM) starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy is the sort of movie one knows will end happily from the start, and no matter what the characters face, the audience knows it will all come out all right in the end, and a splendid and enjoyable story is always ahead, well presented and scripted, witty and charming, wonderfully costumed, supplied with one beautifully furnished and designed setting after another....the sort of movie which could and was only provided for American and world audiences during the fabled Golden Age Of Big Studio Hollywood in the years immediately before World War II, perhaps the high water mark in movie history.

See this movie and these two actors (and the other two movies of fame they did before this....Naughty Marietta [1935 MGM] and Rosemarie [1937 MGM]}. Everything about it is good in all ways

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Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen.

Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com.

See Tes Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)