La fugue de Mariette

This is just a flat out good movie! Maybe I should say a GREAT movie. Although I've been a fan over the past few decades of many films and performers of the 1930s--including the amazing dancing team of (who else?) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers--until yesterday I'd never seen a film featuring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Then, by chance a couple of weeks ago, I heard some singing by Eddy and started checking his and Jeanette's work on Youtube.

This led me to many scenes and songs on good old Youtube. The singing was, well, fabulous, and the chemistry between the stars was kinetic, but I figured that, outside of the songs themselves, the movies would probably be syrupy sweet and impossibly dated. That seemed to be the buzz, and otherwise, why weren't they more popular with today's audiences. Still, I had to see a whole film after those tantalizing Youtube scenes.

Still, actually finding their films isn't all that easy. There is nothing much on Netflix and few videos of any kind seem to be currently in print. Still, I managed to track down and buy a DVD of 'Naughty Marietta' from an independent outlet--and was amazed at how good it was, and not just the songs!

It has a compelling plot, a whole variety of settings going up and down the social ladder from posh Louis XV Paris to the bayous of the rugged Louisiana frontier. It also features some appealing comic moments from MGM's team of crack character actors. Frank Morgan (later the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz) particularly stands out as the likably incompetent governor of French colonial New Orleans.

And even in their non-singing scenes, the chemistry between the two stars remains electric. I somehow hadn't realized, at least until my Youtube explorations, that Jeanette MacDonald was drop-dead gorgeous--but she was. She also had a great deal of vivacity and charm-- and, boy, could she sing. Eddy's acting has been criticized, and maybe he didn't have tremendous emotional range, but he does have a real presence on the screen along with that electric connection with Jeanette. And when he sings, his voice acts for him! Moreover, as a singer, he's even better than Jeanette.

All in all, the effect is remarkable and one can see why these movies were so immensely popular in their own time. Moreover, overall, I'd rate the non-musical elements of Naughty Marietta (plot, dialog, characterization, acting, setting, thematic development) as superior to most or all of the non-musical moments of Astaire-Rogers, although their movies are, of course, far better known today. In Astaire-Rogers one is often wishing they'll get through this silly scene of dialog and get to the next dance, but that doesn't happen in Naughty Marietta, where the songs seem to grow organically out of the intriguing dramatic situations.

I'm going to track down more films in the Eddy-MacDonald series. This one certainly far exceeded my expectations!

I wish that "Naughty Marietta" and "Sweethearts" and "I Married an Angel" and " and "Maytime" and would be gathered in a 4 disc Tribute set of DVD's. MacDonald and Eddy were well aware that the music in their films was mostly tripe and that the plot lines were thin at best.They were keenly aware of their film's theatricality being in a style that was already passé. But if you watch their faces when they act, ( and it is very good acting!) and see the mutual admiration in their eyes, and understand that it is all performed with tongue in cheek, the films become a lasting delight. My favorites are "Marietta," "Sweethearts" and "Maytime."

"Marietta" is the height of charm. MacDonald is perfection with her bird like trills and rolling "r"s, and shows a very wide display of emotions, including everything from dramatic hand wringing and tears to delightful comedic acting and humor. Eddy matches these moods with considerable skill. He had to be somewhat less flamboyant than MacDonald in order to keep t the movie plausible. The real villain is the plot, but even that could not take away the delight this picture gives to me. ( Frank Morgan is great in it!)

" Sweethearts" is my very favorite of their films. The antiquated plot of the musical stage play was tossed, and a whole new modern story was written for it by Dorothy Parker. Only the songs from the operetta were kept, and were interwoven into the movie within "Great Ziegfeld " like elaborate settings. It was also the first full length 3 strip Technicolor movie made at MGM. Both stars looked wonderful in color, and the absolutely rip roaringly funny story line only pauses for the musical numbers . The songs were acted and sung with such obvious self depreciating humor, that I cannot stop smiling , even now as I am writing this.

"Maytime" is, of course a tragedy, with lovely haunting songs and great scenic beauty. The made for the screen "Opera within the operetta" is the two star's acting zenith. Their delight and passion and friendship for each other in real life shines through the scene, giving it an extraordinary sense of truth. SO, Why not a glorious Boxed set from SONY/ TURNER/ MGM? Please??????

Forgive me for loving this movie! It is dated and corny and the acting of Nelson Eddy is sadly lacking BUT when he and Jeanette McDonald break into song, nothing else matters. With the most glorious voices in the movies, these two made it all worthwhile. Both were gorgeous to look at but McDonald was obviously the better actor while Eddy had the classically trained voice. Together they took your breath away. The haunting "Sweet Mystery of Life" will bring tears to your eyes. This is by far the best of their series of movies although "Maytime" has some equally beautiful music and is a weeper to boot! Take the time to watch this film, you will not be disappointed. It's glorious!!!

This is truly one of my favorite classics. My grandmother gave it to me when I was five, after she saw my interest in and love of opera and musicals. It is light and romantic with some absolutely lovely duets between McDonald and Eddy. Though not as passionate and dark like the more modern musicals, it is quite charming and worth seeing.

Naughty Marietta has earned it place in film history for being the first film to pair the singing duo of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, but it's also a fine example of its particular genre.

A typical variant on the boy-meets-girl theme, this film has a French princess running away from the court of Versailles to the newly- colonized Louisiana, where she meets and falls in love with a mercenary soldier who sings as well he fights. There is an excellent supporting cast including Frank Morgan and Elsa Lanchester, but it is above all a vehicle for the singing talent of Eddy and MacDonald. The script is amusing and at times quite sophisticated and the pair handle it well (MacDonald is a bit ahead of Eddy here, but he makes up for that with his glorious baritone voice). The final duet, Ah Sweet Mystery of Life is one of the great vocal duets in cinema musical history, and only slightly less orgasmic than the "Czaritza" duet in Maytime.

Obviously a vehicle for fans of the Singing Sweethearts, but the film's production values are good, and it should be interesting viewing for any student of cinema's Golden Age.