Watch I Married an Angel For Free

the audience applauded

Pretty Good

Great Film overall

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is one of the more difficult films to grade. Plagued by editing that makes an already strange story even more disjointed, "I Married an Angel" is an ambitious project that deserves points just for its audacity. The bulk of the story is a dream sequence. As such, it is not subject to limitations of reality or reason. Count Palaffi (Nelson Eddy), the dreamer, is visited by an angel who intends to marry him. His unconscious mind tries to resolve the difficulties that could result from such a spirit-mortal pairing. These scenes are, like dreams, whimsical and sometimes irrational. Non sequiturs abound.The film is fortunate to feature a couple of standards by Rodgers and Hart. It also includes many beautiful women and some wonderful fashions, though in B&W. Jeanette MacDonald, as the angel, is the highlight of the film. She demonstrates a variety of talents, including jitterbugging and some comedic turns that remind one of Gracie Allen. On the other hand, her voice is not ideally suited to some more modern (less classical) tunes.Great production values and stages filled with performers cannot totally save this film. Jeanette appears to have a ball, but Nelson seems awkwardly out of place. The early scenes nearly convinced me to stop watching, but its campiness and the pure chutzpah of its ambitions partially won me over.

Although only five songs are retained from the original Broadway production, they are wonderful and wonderfully performed by the entire cast. They are: I Married An Angel, Spring Is Here, I'll Tell The Man In The Street, A Twinkle In Your Eye, and La La Tira Lira La.The social satire and sarcasm of the script still goes over a lot of critics' heads, but I think it's a fun movie and the only one we have with MacDonald and Eddy that is not an operetta. They are both delightful in their last outing together.The production values are stunning. I believe it deserved, but did not receive, Oscar nominations in the categories of Art Direction, Scoring, and Costume Design. Especially in the latter area with costumes contributed by Broadway's Motley. The costumes for the ball early on are amazing in and of themselves, but the women's stylish outfits throughout the film are equally marvelous. Granted there was no Costume Design category at the Oscars in 1942, but still…I kept thinking I was seeing Celeste Holm as one of Willie's girl friends, but realize now it was Anne Jeffreys in an early role. They do look amazingly alike in the cheekbones.I recommend this as a sprightly, fun and clever take on the deceit required to make it in fashionable society.

I just finished reading a book on Anita Loos' work and the photo in TCM Magazine of MacDonald in her angel costume looked great (impressive wings), so I thought I'd watch this movie. I'd never heard of the film before, so I had no preconceived notions about it whatsoever. Thought it got off to a cute start with Eddy as the playboy and MacDonald as the secretary he doesn't know exists. The scene where she shows up at the costume party in her simple angel outfit with an uncooperative halo and wings that won't stay on was really endearing. I was even with the film when Eddy goes to sleep and imagines her as a real angel. But after a while it just started to fall apart for me. Eddy stays "asleep" for the entire rest of movie, so it's all a dream. Whatever happens from there on doesn't really matter, because he's just dreaming. The rest of it was pretty much plot less and pointless. I had to force myself to stick with it. And the final number where MacDonald goes from musical number to musical number in some mad hallucination was just plain freaky.Had Eddy "woken" a sooner and the original story continued, or had he really married an angel, I think it would have been a lot more interesting. I wanted to see more of her real character.There weren't really enough musical numbers to call it a musical. The first few songs were good, but the jitterbug number that MacDonald performs was like nails on a chalkboard. Completely wrong for her operatic voice. Even so, Eddy and MacDonald still manage to shine, showing what true stars they were.

The final pairing of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald is basically a complete misfire.The script is weak and has been presented badly.The film just has no life in it.Eddy and MacDonald would have been better off just making a filmed concert for their final pairing.There's nothing wrong with their singing,its just everything else in this turkey thats overcooked.