Monte-Carlo

Monte Carlo fail to attain the rate of other Lubistch musicals like "Love Parade" or "One hour with you".But this is anyway a very cute,funny and surprising movie who contains some great sequences and some holes.A sort of musical "Bluebeard's eight wife".

Jeanette Mac Donald gives one exhilarating performance.She's used to play the noble lady charming and snob and she excels at it.Just watch the scene where she breaks her hair and shut,while crying:"Here!I'm going to the Opera and i'll say to everyone you dressed my hair!" I couldn't stop laughing.

About Jack Buchanan-well,he's not Maurice Chevalier to say the least.He doesn't seem very comfortable with his part.In some scenes (mainly the one where the count and his friends laugh endlessly) he is mechanical and unnatural.He drift from cynic to genuine lover in a very disturbing way. Anyway,it must be said that in certain sequences he's not bad at all.I liked the way he shook his head when Jeanette calls him Rudolph and at the end,when he affect indifference each time the countess looks at him then smile irrepressibly. The supporting cast is excellent but some characters (as the fiancé's father disappear in the middle of the movie and left a strange impression.

The songs are quite good -except the funny but forgettable little number about hairdresser- Jeanette Mac Donald sings the legendary,Lubitsch favorite song "Beyond the blue horizon" and there is a beautiful duo between the two leads "Always in all ways".At a certain moment of the song,you feel an almost palpable atmosphere of joy.

Verdict: "Not bad,not bad at all".Forgive the script's incoherences and Buchanan's weaknesses and enjoy.

This time it's the beautiful and witty early Jeanette MacDonald, before Nelson Eddy came along - in an unusual Lubitsch romantic comedy musical! A high society romp involving financially embarrassed Countess Helene (Jeanette MacDonald) bolting during a wedding to stuffy but rich Duke Otto (Claude Allister). Her idea is to escape to Monte Carlo and gamble herself back into the upper circles, without depending on men in her life. It doesn't work out, due to many twists of the wheel as well as the plot, involving Count Rudolph (Jack Buchanan) - and Duke Otto - now both after her. Lots of sophisticated laughs at the antics of the high-born, sort of verbal slapstick. And some great music too, even beyond the blue horizon!

MONTE CARLO (Paramount, 1930), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonald, is a witty, sophisticated musical comedy with continental charm, which at times resembles some of the latter films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for RKO Radio. Lubitsch, who had recently scored a big hit with MacDonald in THE LOVE PARADE (Paramount, 1929), once again uses her to good advantage, presenting this promo dona as not only a good singer, but a fine comedienne. Although MacDonald would be charmed by Chevalier's smile in three more musicals, this would be her only venture opposite the British import of Jack Buchanan, whose career in early Hollywood musicals (1929-1930), would be short-lived. Although debonair, he failed to click with American audiences, and would spend most of his career in his native England on both stage and screen. Maybe his occasional but sometimes annoying laugh in this production might have found 1930s audiences finding that he is no threat to Chevalier's charm and smile, but on and all, he gets by. Today, Buchanan is best known for his latter Hollywood role supporting Fred Astaire and Nanette Fabray in the lavish Technicolor 1953 musical, THE BAND WAGON.

The story begins during a rain storm where a wedding is about to take place. The stuffy Prince Otto Von Leibeneheim (Claude Allister), the husband-to-be, is awaiting at the church for his future bride, Countess Helene Mara. As the choir sings, Otto receives a "Dear John" letter from Vera, making this the third time that he has been stood up by her. The next scene finds Vera, still wearing her wedding gown, accompanied by her maid, Bertha (ZaSu Pitts), running to catch the next train. Because she is down to her last francs, she decides to make her next stop to Monte Carlo and try her luck at the gambling tables, with much success. While there, she encounters Count Rudolph Fallieres (Jack Buchanan), a ladies man who becomes interested in her. Feeling that caressing her hair will bring him luck at the gambling tables, Rudy succeeds in keeping his identity a secret and getting her to hire him as her hairdresser, later promoted to be her personal servant and chauffeur. Eventually love blossoms, until Prince Otto locates her.

Being mainly a production that consists only of singing, with music and lyrics by Richard Whiting, W. Franke Harling and Leo Robin, the tune fest musical program is as follows: "Day by Day" (sung by church choir); "She'll Love Me and Like It" (sung by Claude Allister and wedding guests); "Beyond the Blue Horizon" (sung by Jeanette MacDonald); "Give Me a Moment Please" (sung by Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonald); "Trimmin' the Women" (sung by Buchanan, Tyler Brooke and John Roche); "Whatever It Is, It's Grand" (sung by Buchanan and MacDonald); "She'll Love Me and Like It" (reprise by Claude Allister, sung by MacDonald); "Always in All Ways" (sung by Buchanan and MacDonald); "Give Me a Moment Please" (reprise by Buchanan); "Always in All Ways," "Monsieur Beauclair Opera Sequence" (with selections sung by Donald Novis); and "Beyond the Blue Horizon." In spite of "Beyond the Blue Horizon" being the film's most remembered and admired song, the one that would obviously get an Academy Award nomination had the Best Song category been around in 1930, "Always in All Ways" is also a delightful tune that shouldn't go without mention. It's even the underscore heard during the movie's opening screen credits and closing THE END logo.

MONTE CARLO also includes a running gag throughout the story in which some members of the cast tell each other a riddle: "She comes from a wedding, she has nothing on, she left her husband behind, she has no ticket, she has no idea where she wants to go, and she goes to Monte Carlo. How old is the husband?" Eventually, when this riddle reaches poor Otto, it slowly but finally dawns on him that it's pertaining to Vera and himself when he goes to tell this same riddle to another.

Regardless, MONTE CARLO, looks strictly modern with its lavish sets and advanced camera technique. In fact, it looks even better than the previous Lubitsch/MacDonald collaboration of THE LOVE PARADE or anything else from 1929. The only slow spot is the final ten minutes set during its prolonged opera theater sequence, but otherwise, a grand show not to be missed. If the story and leading man are forgettable, the sequence where MacDonald sings "Beyond the Blue Horizon" from her window of the train while looking at the countryside, with others such as farmers joining in the rendition as the train passes by them, will remain in memory long after the movie is over. Seldom broadcast since New York City's public television showing on WNET's Cinema 13 during the 1980s, MONTE CARLO has turned up on DVD around 2009 before having its long overdue cable television broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 21, 2012). How fortunate that this, among many films of the early sound era, have not to be among the "lost" movies from that bygone era. (****)

The first twenty minutes of Monte Carlo is so enjoyable and promising, you might think you're watching one of Ernst Lubitsch's best musical comedies. The film kicks off with a highly amusing sequence at the palace of a silly aristocrat, where a wedding ceremony goes disastrously awry. First, the well-wishers are doused by a sudden rainfall (as we see a banner proclaiming "Happy is the Bride the Sun Shines On"), and consequently the members of the processional are forced to switch from a stately march to a mad scramble into the church. Then the groom is informed that his intended bride has fled, and we soon learn that this is the third time she has done so. But the groom's father insists that the wedding gifts will not be returned, and sends his son out to calm the guests. The groom, Otto, is played by Claude Allister, a bizarre-looking character actor who specialized in playing silly ass Englishmen. Otto treats the crowd to a song assuring them that he'll retrieve his bride and that "She'll Love Me and Like It!" This number is hilarious, and whets our appetites for more.

Next we meet the runaway bride herself, Countess Helene (Jeanette MacDonald), who, with her maid (ZaSu Pitts) has hopped a train without even bothering to find out where it's going -- nor did she take the time, when fleeing, to dress in anything beyond her slip and a light jacket. Once in her compartment she promptly doffs the jacket. (Can you say "Pre-Code"?) After an amusing exchange with a train conductor played by former Sennett comedian Billy Bevan, Jeanette sets her course for Monte Carlo and then sits back in her compartment, gazes happily out the window, and sings the film's most famous song, "Beyond the Blue Horizon." This sequence is renowned among film historians as one of the best musical numbers of the early talkie era, one that transcended the stage-bound conventions holding back other filmmakers. Here Lubitsch artfully combines a montage of traveling shots, the rhythmic sounds of the train, the swelling strains of the orchestra and MacDonald's voice to create a genuinely exhilarating number.

Unfortunately, once our Countess reaches Monte Carlo it marks the point where the movie itself has peaked. From here on, it steadily loses momentum and never again regains the propulsive cheer of those opening moments. I'm not entirely sure why the famed Lubitsch Touch faltered in this case, but in my opinion the biggest single error was the casting of Jack Buchanan in the male lead. Buchanan was a popular stage star in London, but he didn't succeed as a star in Hollywood, and his performance in this film demonstrates why. To put it bluntly, the man is an oddball: spindly, toothy, nasal-voiced and entirely too pleased with himself to score a hit as an appealing leading man. I think Buchanan must have been one of those performers like George M. Cohan or Fanny Brice whose stage magnetism didn't translate into movie stardom, or at least, not in this sort of role. He's ideal as the pompous stage director in The Band Wagon (1953), but that's an older, mellower Jack Buchanan in a funny character turn. Here, he's pretty hard to take, and none of his songs are as memorable or as cleverly staged as Jeanette's "Beyond the Blue Horizon." (And strangely, although he was celebrated in England for his dancing, he has no dance numbers at all.) Instead, Buchanan is given the film's most campy, embarrassing song, a paean to barbering called "Trimmin' the Women," a number that looks like it escaped from the Celluloid Closet. Things get worse later on when the plot calls for Buchanan to turn macho, and he gruffly orders Jeanette around, which is like watching Franklin Pangborn portray a drill sergeant.

With no Maurice Chevalier to play opposite (and Nelson Eddy still waiting in the wings), Jeanette MacDonald is pretty much left to her own devices. She's charming, but can't carry the picture by herself. Still, even if she'd played opposite a different leading man, Monte Carlo's verbal humor falls short in the later scenes. Lubitsch boosts the comedy quotient with some characteristic visual gags, bits involving missing boudoir keys and a church clock with mechanical musicians, and these moments help, but too many punch-lines fail to land, and too many scenes conclude on anti-climactic notes. Even ZaSu Pitts has to strain for laughs. I feel the director showed more assurance in this film's predecessor, his first talkie The Love Parade, which was boosted by Chevalier's high energy performance and some terrific supporting comics.

Fans of early musicals will want to catch the first two numbers here, but once you've arrived beyond that blue horizon and reached Monte Carlo, you may want to bail. After the first twenty minutes or so this film will most likely be of interest primarily to Lubitsch buffs and Jeanette MacDonald fans.

In fact, Monte Carlo is a nice film that left me mostly in a good mood. It does have a few fairly major flaws, starting with Jack Buchanan who is a total charmless wimp of a leading man and his chemistry with Jeanette MacDonald doesn't really convince, Maurice Chevalier would have been a much better fit. The song Trimmin' the Women is forgettable at best and embarrassing at worst, a song that really should have been left on the editing room floor, a shame because there was some clever musical choreography in it. The story also even for a 1930s musical is rather contrived with a few situations stretched to the limits in credibility. And sadly, ZaSu Pitts is wasted and strains for laughs, she's often delightful but her comic talents are just not used very well at all. As ever with an Ernst Lubitsch film Monte Carlo is a lavish-looking film with opulent period detail and attractive cinematography and Lubitsch directs with his usual class and elegant style. The songs, with the exception of one, are lovely and staged in a witty(a couple alternatively intimate) and light as a feather way, the memorable scene being the tear-jerking Beyond the Blue Horizon staged on a moving train. Give Me a Moment Please is very amusing as well and the most story-enhancing of the songs. The dialogue is sweet and funny with some nice interplay between the actors, the supporting performances are solid enough but other than the songs Jeanette MacDonald is the best thing about Monte Carlo. She is effortlessly charming and feisty and her voice while not large is beautiful in tone and shaped with tasteful style and phrasing. All in all, Lubitsch is nowhere near his best here(Heaven Can Wait, the Merry Widow and particularly The Shop Around the Corner are much preferred) but while problematic Monte Carlo is not a bad film at all, lesser Lubitsch but Lubitsch when not on best form is better than most other directors in the same position. 7/10 Bethany Cox