Rose-Marie **** (1936, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen, Allan Jones, James Stewart, Alan Mowbray) – Classic Movie Review 11,863

Director W S Van Dyke’s pleasurable 1936 MGM black and white musical Rose-Marie stars Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen, Allan Jones, James Stewart, and Alan Mowbray.

Opera singer Marie de Flor (MacDonald) searches for her criminal brother John (Stewart) in the Canadian wilderness, and falls in love with Mountie Sergeant Bruce (Eddy), in this revision of the 1924 Broadway operetta with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto A Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Portions of Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart’s original score are used but most of the songs are dropped and the original plot is changed. The screenplay is by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Alice D G Miller.

Rose-Marie (1936, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy).

MacDonald and Eddy’s duet of ‘Indian Love Call’ (sung four times) is the musical highlight, the romance is attractively handled and the players are appealing. Unfortunately MGM made it in black and white, when it cries out for Technicolor, but MacDonald and Eddy’s most popular and fondest remembered movie is still a very considerable delight. ‘Indian Love Call’ was a major hit for MacDonald and Eddy and remained a signature song of their careers.

It was intended to be in colour but this was dropped. Director Mervyn LeRoy’s 1954 MGM musical Rose-Marie followed – a colour film!

A silent version was previously released by MGM in 1928.

It cost $875,000, and earned $1,695,000 (US) and $1,820,000 elsewhere.

MGM boss Louis B Mayer was angry at Eddy for being involved with MacDonald and ordered makeup artist Fred Phillips to change Eddy’s makeup for the worse.

Location filming was at Lake Tahoe and the footage of the Mounties in boot camp was filmed in Canada.

Canadian murderer and crook Robert Miller Barr [Robert Barr Miller] got a job as an actor in a minor uncredited role in the film while it was shot on location in Lake Tahoe, working under the alias Robert Miller when he was being sought for robbery and murder.

The cast are Jeanette MacDonald as Marie de Flor, Nelson Eddy as Sergeant Bruce, Reginald Owen as Myerson, Allan Jones as Romèo and Mario Cavaradossi (opera scenes), James Stewart as John Flower, Alan Mowbray as Premier of Quebec, George Regas as Boniface, Una O’Connor as Anna, Robert Greig as Saloon and Hotel Owner, James Conlin as pianist Joe, Gilda Gray as Belle, David Niven (credited as David Nivens) as Teddy, and Herman Bing as Mr Daniells, along with Lucien Littlefield, Dorothy Gray, Mary Anita Loos, Aileen Carlyle, Halliwell Hobbes, Paul Porcasi, Bert Lindley, Ed Dearing, Pat West, Russell Hicks, Rolfe Sedan, Louis Mercier, Jack Pennick, Leonard Carey, and Lee Phelps.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,863

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com