Le chant du printemps

The first time I ever heard the name Nelson Eddy was in a Michael Crawford In Concert CD. Since then I have seen "The Phantom of the Opera" in which his starred... but I didn't recognize him as a performer in the least... not until I saw this movie. "Maytime" is my all time favorite movie with Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy. It's closely followed by "New Moon", and I have seen a couple others. Yet "Maytime" has more going for it than just the heart throb known as Nelson Eddy!

The plot is simple. Girl has fiance. Girl meets new guy. Girl falls in love but marries first guy. Years pass. Girl and guy meet again ... and the rest will be history to only those whom have seen it! I could never give away the ending. All I can say is that the music in this movie is absolutely amazing, and I always come so terribly close to crying. I'm not a cryer, so to say I get CLOSE is a good sign. I have bawled to it before!

John Barrymore, Drew's grandfather <?> is a wonderful anti-villain. He's a good guy who just happens to be a terrible protagonist, and he does something so horrible that you hope his Niccolai Nazaroth burns in hellfire for eternity. Yet he's such a terrific 'villain'. The one and only thing I have against this film is that it's in b&w. I wish beyond all wishing that it were in color, so I could see his gorgeous eyes and blonde hair!

Believe me, this is a good movie.

I remember as a young teenager, I had never heard of Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.....then one late night, Maytime was being aired on television, I watched it and after that I would never forget who Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy were! I cried my eyes out and still do every time I see this glorious film. Everything about this movie is wonderful.....costumes, supporting cast, even the story line which is usually not too strong in McDonald/Eddy films. But, oh it's the music and those voices that will enchant you. This along with "Naughty Marietta" is my favorite of the McDonald/Eddy films. It was another time and another world when this type of film was popular but even so, Maytime will continue to enthrall you, touch you and make you weep copious amounts of tears. Especially when you hear..."Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart. Though our paths may sever. Through life's last faint embers, will you remember, springtime, lovetime, May". Glorious!!

It's fascinating to read in all the well justified praise (and occasional cavil) lavished on the glorious hodge-podge that is MAYTIME, not one word of the great feature film debut at MGM which the film also represented.

Since MAYTIME - first filmed in 1923 in a version more faithful to the original but as a "silent" film, lacking ALL of the original music - was contractually obligated to ONLY credit music to the great Sigmund Romberg (whose original show it had been when it opened on Broadway on August 16, 1917, to play for a then astounding 492 performances with songs the studio did not want to use like "Jump, Jim Crow"), the studio called in their youngest contracted composer/lyricists (then only 21 and earning a mere - but lordly during the Depression - $200 a week), Bob Wright and George (Chet) Forrest, who would be willing to do virtually the entire score (not allowed to actually compose, but adapting public domain material under chief studio composer - and early Oscar Hammerstein collaborator - Herbert Stothart's supervision). Wright and Forrest were relegated to billing only for "Special Lyrics by..." (and not even acknowledged for THAT by the IMDb, although the credits are there on the screen!). The film's "Best Score" Oscar nomination didn't even go to Romberg or supervising composer Stothart, but to Nat W. Finston, the head of the studio's Music Division!

It was years before "The Boys" would break into the public consciousness with stage adaptations of their own like SONG OF NORWAY and KISMET, and their own (always their first choice) original music for shows like KEAN and GRAND HOTEL, but the result on MAYTIME (including their faux Russian opera for the film, drawn from Tschaikowsky's 5th Symphony, translated from their original English into French by another poet not credited by IBDB - in a talk at the New York Sheet Music Society in 1989, Bob Wright said it was U.S. Sigey, but the screen credits say Gilles Guilbert) was a triumph of craft and carefully catering to the strengths of the stars who they were writing for. Witness in particular a couple numbers ("Song of The Carriage" and a number where Eddy proposes to prepare a ham and egg breakfast for MacDonald) crafted for the limited acting range of Nelson Eddy, giving him something to DO while he sang!

LOTS of great Broadway names worked under almost forgotten under-billed capacities (Larry Hart of Rodgers & Hart fame did lyrics for the Maurice Chevalier MERRY WIDOW!), but Wright & Forrest were among the most prolific and best, and MAYTIME was their first major film "credit." It's only a pity (given the high quality of their few surviving original scores) that in the ways of Hollywood, MAYTIME also "typecast" them into adapting other composers' works for the bulk of their careers.

For their third screen teaming MGM gave Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy the old Sigmund Romberg-Rida Johnson Young operetta Maytime which was originally on Broadway in 1919. They kept the libretto, but scrapped the entire score except for the famous Will You Remember duet which became one of Jeanette and Nelson's most beloved songs. In its place were some operatic arias and some public domain standards like Carry Me Back to Old Virginia and La Marsellaise. This served to make the musical part of the film tilted far more to Jeanette than Nelson.

But the plot is one of the most romantic. The film opens with a heavily made up Jeanette living as an old maid in some small town. Both the neighbor's daughter and her sweetheart confide in her. The daughter has been given a chance to study music, but that would mean uprooting herself and going abroad. The boyfriend is in love and wants to marry her.

Jeanette sighs and tells the daughter about her life that at one time she was a famous opera singer who's been living in obscurity by choice because she chose a career over true love. Of course we all know who her true love is. But she marries her manager John Barrymore and in the end Jeanette has cause to regret.

The movie's message about marrying for love is an odd one indeed to come out of Hollywood. That's one place where a whole lot of people including the two stars of this film sacrificed a lot of personal happiness for careers.

Actually in another film a year later, Jeanette and Nelson were a happily married singing team in Sweethearts. I guess the idea is you should marry for love, but if you're a singer hope your spouse can carry a tune.

Will You Remember got a second go around in the Sigmund Romberg biographical film Deep In My Heart with Vic Damone and Jane Powell doing the honors. But it's not half as good as when Nelson and Jeanette sing it.

John Barrymore turns in a fine performance as the rather tightly wrapped manager of MacDonald. For a man who was brought up in the bravura tradition of Victorian stage acting, Barrymore was capable of great subtlety in his screen roles. Watch his facial expressions, they tell you far more than any dialog will. Of course he out acts the two leads.

The other supporting performance of note is Herman Bing as Nelson Eddy's sidekick/music teacher. Maybe if Jeanette had studied with him things would have turned out better.

When the flashback sequence opens Jeanette and Barrymore are going to a palace ball where she sings for Emperor Louis Napoleon, Les Filles Des Cadiz. That sequence was later seen in Jeanette's later starring film Cairo where she plays a movie star stranded in Cairo. It was a most requested item in later concert performances.

For romantics at heart and of all ages Maytime is a must see film for you.

Because there was nothing suitable in the opera repertoire for a baritone and a soprano to sing together! And Romberg's music wasn't used because it was too expensive; practically everything in the film score was in public domain or composed for the film. Likewise, filming in color was nixed in a cost-cutting move (though, frankly, I can't imagine how this film could be any better in color!) Movie-making is all and always about compromise.

A little research into Herbert Stothart's tonal plan for this film will help you understand it better, if understanding the technicalities will help you appreciate it more. But just enjoy "Maytime" for what it is, not what it isn't. A lovely, opulent, romance treasure. Don't be afraid to like it!