Naughty Marietta

Originally an operetta, Naughty Marietta is the story of a rebellious eighteenth century French princess, Madame d’Annard (Elsa Lanchester).  When told that she is being forced to marry Don Carlos de Braganza (Walter Kingsford) and will be imprisoned for refusing, she takes the identity of one of her servants, Marietta (Jeanette MacDonald) who is to sail for New Orleans the next day.  In exchange, she left the real Marietta enough money to marry her love.

The ship for New Orleans is filled with young available women, destined to become wives to the new settlers.  Over the long voyage, the ladies swoon and dream of the strapping farmers and soldiers they will find.  However, Madame d’Annard, now answering to Marietta, does not want to marry or be tied down, which seems confusing to the other women.  The time for worrying about the new Marietta’s agenda is cut short when the ship is captured by ruthless pirates.

With my love for pirates, I thought the film was about to really perk up for those of us who would be more into a swashbuckling adventure.  Unfortunately, this is short lived and a group of strapping men from the colony, led by Captain Richard Warrington (Nelson Eddy) save the ladies.  Between the rescue and arrival to New Orleans, Richard and Madame d’Annard begin a sort of anti-friendship.  They sing together for the sake of the original operetta and 1930’s cinema, he flirts and she continually shoots him down.  But when men start wanting to marry her, after all that’s what this heard of women were brought for, and she refuses, it takes the help of an anti-friend to convince the men that she can be an entertainer.  Everything seems perfect, until French authorities show up looking for the missing princess.

There are some silly moments the move the plot that simply would never work, but they are all in good fun.  When the ship to New Orleans is about to set sail, the way Madame d’Annard tries to convince the authority of her fake identity is hilarious, especially when she pretends the drunk in the crowd is her brother.  Later, when Richard is helping the princess escape, they go by rowboat, slowest means of transportation possible, and he starts to sing very loudly.  Stealth is not their strong suit.  Of course, when Madame d’Annard is not very good at reading a letter aloud, she decides to sing it instead.  Whatever, if I were stuck on that ship any bit of entertainment would be appreciated.

Naughty Marietta is simply a cute tale of mistaken identities, though we do not get much story of what happens to the real Marietta.  The focus is the princess, her nearly independent woman ideals, a love story to save her and singing.  The movie is fun and has some great moments, but lacks enough substance to keep an Oscar loving film junkie satisfied.

“There went that chin to the moon again.”

The Love Parade

At a first look, I thought The Love Parade was just another musical showcasing Maurice Chevalier and his unbridled romantic antics.  This film is actually considered the first musical film with songs mixed in with the story.  Director Ernst Lubitsch had only previously worked on silent films and in order to avoid many static filled hurdles present in the time of early talkies, all the film was recorded with no audio and the sound was dubbed later.  A rather ingenious idea when you hear how hindered the audio can be in other films of the time.

In this first crack at musical comedy, Chevalier plays Count Alfred Renard and  flees Paris after having too many affairs with women.  He goes to Sylvania, where the beautiful Queen Louise (Jeanette MacDonald) is being pestered constantly about when she will take a husband.  Naturally, she and Alfred start a romance, with all the queen’s servants watching nervously, knowing Alfred’s womanizing reputation.

When they marry, it seems that Alfred has miscalculated his role next to the Queen.  He will not become a king, instead he will be a prince and have no royal duties or responsibilities.  In fact, it will be the queen, his wife who will control everything and Alfred must obey and be docile.   Even at wedding ceremonies today, you can hear that dreadful word “obey” said to the bride, but when Alfred hears that word spoken to him at the alter, he’s so shocked he hesitates to answer.

From then on, the film becomes a royal newly wed struggle of reversed gender roles.  The guards won’t take any orders from Alfred, only the Queen.  All day, the Queen has important things to attend to, while Alfred has nothing on his agenda unless the queen schedules him some tennis or bridge for him.  He gets sick of his manhood being shelved quickly and at the royal couple’s first public appearance, he threatens not to show.  But refusing to go would begin a political chain reaction that results in Sylvania going broke.  The eventual compromise Alfred and the queen find only infuriates my feminist bone.

For the most part, this film is just the same old Chevalier stick, but it’s still fun and cute if you enjoy some lighthearted musical breaks.  Things get most interesting during the gender bending, for the thirties this must have turned a few heads.  I applaud the daring idea so early in film history, but even this early the cop out must have hurt some young women.  I wonder how many people left that theater nodding to each other saying, “See, that’s why a man should always be in charge.”  I don’t think I’d let any of Chevalier’s characters be in charge of anything more important than a hamster.

“He has nothing to say,nothing to do.  …Well, I wouldn’t say that.”

One Hour with You

This has got to be the most charming little film of the 1930’s I’ve encountered yet.

In One Hour With You we meet a young, happily married couple: Andre (Maurice Chevalier) and Colette (Jeanette MacDonald).  It’s summarized (partially in song) how happy they are and how great marriage is.  The next day, Colette’s old friend Mitzi (Genevieve Tobin) is coming to visit.  Mitzi is one of those flirtatious girls who won’t let up once they spot a target, and she’s all over Andre in no time.  Andre tries his hardest to resist, but by the end of the night after he and Colette host a lavish party, he is in Mitzi’s arms.  He isn’t proud of it, and even asks the audience, “What would you do?”  When he hears that Mitzi’s husband is planning to divorce her over the incident he knows he has to come clean to his wife.  But she’s been having to handle the advances of another man herself.

This film is just an easy-going musical comedy, and I don’t mean that in a condescending way.  There’s something about the old-timey music and the screwy romance plot that makes you smile, relax and not take things so seriously.

Many times, a rhyming dialogue eases into a song.  That may sound strange, but it works as such a natural transition.  I’ve complained before about the sudden song breaks in 1930’s film, but this was a joy.  I honestly wish most musicals would use the subtle transition; it’s more quirky than odd, just like many other parts of the film.

There are also many scenes where Andre talks directly to the audience.  He becomes a narrator and brings his insight to whatever just happened in the scene with so much personality.  The first time he broke that fourth wall, I knew this would be a very relaxed and fun film.  And Maurice Chevalier’s heavy French accent just added to my smiles.

The plot is trite and there’s a good amount of singing, but everything made with just enough silliness that we can enjoy it.  If you’re weary about trying out a 1930’s musical, I would strongly suggest testing the water with One Hour With You.

“I am married and I like it.  Sorry to disappoint you.”

San Francisco

Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Jeanette MacDonald star in this film immortalizing one of the greatest cities on the west coast.  The film opens on New Years, 1906, being celebrated in the streets.  It’s joyful chaos with everyone dancing and singing together and streamers falling like snow, but then a fire breaks out (hint of foreshadow history buffs) and we watch children jump from a burning building onto the firemen’s trampoline.  Plenty of action, and we haven’t even found a plot yet!

The story rolls out at The Paradise Café, a club owned by Blackie Norton (Gable), one of the roughest, most Godless men in San Francisco.  Mary Blake (MacDonald) comes in looking for a job as a singer.  Blackie hires her, even though her voice isn’t exactly nightclub material.  One night, two men from the Tivoli Opera House see Mary and offer her a job singing opera.  This seems like Mary’s dream come true, but Blackie reminds the men she’s under a contract with him.  How sad, she’s got too much talent for a gin joint.

Between her numbers at The Paradise, Mary helps out singing at a local church.  There she meets Father Tim (Tracy).  He takes an interest in Mary for many reasons.  One, he worries about a good church girl singing in a bar.  Two, he also sees she’s better suited for opera.  And three, Father Tim and Blackie grew up together and he’s seen all sides of Blackie, including when he turned away from the ideas of church and God and the time he anonymously donated a new organ to the church.  He thinks that Blackie is “ashamed of his good deeds as others are ashamed of their sins.”

So that’s the set up.  What ensues is a tug of war for Mary’s heart and talent between Blackie and one of the opera managers.  Later, at a fundraiser dinner after Blackie’s Paradise is shut down and all his performers in jail, Mary volunteers to represent his establishment and sings San Francisco.  Just when it looks like Blackie does have a loyal friend willing to help him, he rejects the charity and like an act of God, the great earthquake of 1906 hits.

I hope I haven’t given away too much of the story, but I wanted to be able to talk about the earthquake.  There should have been a special effects award back in ’36, cause San Francisco would have won easily with the earthquake scene.  Buildings crumble, walls fall on actors, the ground even splits, it’s really more than I expected.

The earthquake is really a 180 turn in the film, suddenly all that stuff about pride doesn’t matter anymore when people are stuck under rubble and there’s no water to put out the growing fire.  As Blackie sees more and more people desperately running through the streets praying out loud, the gears in his head start to turn.  Perhaps his old friend Tim is right, maybe there’s more to believe than what one can see and touch.

This is a very enjoyable film for the 1930’s.  The story isn’t too out of date, there isn’t too much singing, the range of characters are believable and the fantastic classic actors are always a treat.  If your kids wrinkle their noses in confusion when talk about Clark Gable or Spencer Tracy, watch San Francisco.  It could also be a little history lesson about the great earthquake of 1906.

“Well, we certainly don’t do things halfway in San Francisco.”

***1936 is a year I’m split on.  The Great Zeigfeld is great, but if you want a more compelling story, less singing and that amazing earthquake scene you’ll have to pick San Francisco.***