I Married an Angel

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy star in this "modern" musical that showcases MacDonald's comic abilities. Surreal 40s musical seem to be making fun of 40s fashions even as they were in current vogue. Eye-popping costumes and sets (yes B&W) add to the surreal, dreamlike quality of the entire film. Several good songs enliven the film, with the "Twinkle in Your Eye" number a total highlight, including a fun jitterbug number between MacDonald and Binnie Barnes. Also in the HUGE cast are Edward Everett Horton, Reginal Owen, Mona Maris, Douglas Dumbrille and Anne Jeffreys. Also to been seen in extended bit parts are Esther Dale, Almira Sessions, Grace Hayle, Gertrude Hoffman, Rafaela Ottiano, Odette Myrtile, Cecil Cunningham and many others.

Great fun and nice to see the wonderful MacDonald in her jitterbug/vamp routines. She could do it all.

It was not planned that way, but as it turns out the film adaption of the Rodgers&Hart Broadway musical I Married an Angel turned out to be the last pairing of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Nelson in fact left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after this film and bought his own contract out for $250,000.00 according to a recently published book about the pair by Sheryl Rich.

They are in good voice and the songs of Rodgers&Hart never got a better treatment. Unfortunately the film ran into some censorship problems about celestial creatures doing some very earthly things. Rodgers&Hart were busy on Broadway and couldn't help. Two very big shows for them, Pal Joey and By Jupiter kept them occupied.

Nelson is a happy carefree Hungarian playboy who's grandfather started the Bank of Budapest. But Nelson would rather spend his time with wine, women, and song and since it's Nelson Eddy, song doesn't take third place to the other two. At his birthday party he's taken by a little known to him employee at the bank in an angel costume. Guess who that is? Feeling a little the worse for wear from the revelry, Nelson takes a little snooze.

During the dream Jeanette appears to him as a real angel and Nelson is smitten. He asks her to marry him and she agrees. She's without a dishonest bone in her heavenly body.

Unfortunately her time in heaven has not prepared her to deal with certain earthly hypocrisies. It's one wild celestial ride that Jeanette gives Nelson.

The title song, I'll Tell the Man in the Street, and Spring is Here are the big hit numbers from the Broadway show and the stars do them well. The satire comes off far better here than it did for Jeanette and Nelson in Bittersweet, but still censorship really crippled some of the best lines from Broadway.

Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen, Edward Everett Horton and Douglass Dumbrille give good support to the singing sweethearts. Barnes practically steals the show as the wisecracking earthly friend of MacDonald who sets out to teach her worldly ways.

I think fans of MacDonald and Eddy and others who do knock this film ought to give it a second look. It's not as bad as some would make it out to be.

This movie improves with every viewing! Because it's a fantasy, every time you see it, you notice different things going on in the background. I used to mind the occasional cut-aways to Willie asleep on the couch, but I realize that even now---perhaps especially now---audiences need to be reminded that it is a dream they're watching. If some parts of the narrative are disconcerting, it seems that several scenes were cut before release, scenes that explain things like the crowd in the street in front of the Palaffi Bank when Willie arrives for work, Peter's sudden appearance and instant dislike of Anna, and how "all of a sudden" Peggy becomes Anna's best friend. But it is a delightful film with beautiful singing, memorable songs, and sly satire that works on several levels. A real treat: watch it! (Regarding Anna's wings at the party: Foil-covered cardboard and a costume made ofbed linen are jealous Marika's attempt to make Anna look foolish.)

One used to say, concerning Nathaniel Hawthorne, that his failures were more interesting than his successes. I believe that the same remark could suit to McDonald-Eddy's pictures. And especially this one.

It apparently possesses many characteristics of a failed movie: it's kitsch, the script, because of censorship, sounds inconsistent… Yet, this movie gets also some good points: good Rodgers-Hart's music ("I married an angel", "Tira tira tira la"), good acting with E.E.Horton and Reginald Owen.

Anyway, if you may dislike it, you can't forget it. This strange movie actually leaves a very strong, dreamlike, impression, and you are very likely to keep it in mind for days, maybe for weeks. Why? In the thirties and the beginning of the forties, movies didn't have the same mean than today: it aimed, like a dream, to divert the public in order to make it forget a difficult reality. Of all the the dream-movies that was made, in that time, this one stands as particularly powerful.

In short, let's say that the better way to appreciate this movie, is to watch it without wondering whether it's good or bad. To watch it, like you would watch a dream.

This movie is a wonderful fantasy to watch! The MacDonald-Eddy team step outside of their usual plot formulas and into something very different but still entertaining. Several of the scenes (e.g., the Tira-Lira-Loo costume ball sequence) have the look and feel of the Emerald City of OZ, which is perfect for the whimsical plot. Too bad the movie wasn't filmed in Technicolor because the costuming, sets and musical numbers are all well done.

The stars and character support actors all appear well-suited to their roles and the storyline is quite unique and perhaps ahead of its time.

Too bad the film was released at the start of America's entry into World War II, because most audiences were probably more in a mood for something patriotic than whimsy.

I'm guessing L. B. Mayer did little to promote the film because he hated Nelson Eddy and probably wanted to end his successful teaming with Jeanette MacDonald.

If released in another era, this film may have returned a profit and enabled Nelson and Jeanette to continue their movie operetta careers together! Give it a look.