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As Good As It Gets

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

THE MERRY WIDOW (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1934), produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, is a musical-comedy based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar, though the movie is more Lubitsch than Lehar. Marking the fourth and final screen collaboration of Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, and their only one together for MGM, many rate this their very best. Although their previous efforts for Paramount: THE LOVE PARADE (1929); ONE HOUR WITH YOU (1932) and LOVE ME TONIGHT (1932) have their own style of significance and flavor, depending on one's choice of favorites, THE MERRY WIDOW at times seems more like THE LOVE PARADE with more extravagance and gloss than the Paramount productions. Lubitsch, who happened to direct their first two, offers more in regards of familiarity in witty comedy along with some surprising twist of events, yet slightly disappoints in regards to brief song passages rather than satisfactory five minutes or more of tuneful melodies.The story opens in "The Kingdom of Marshovia in the year 1885," a Central European country north of Roumania (so small it's found as a dot on the map through a magnifying glass) where Madame Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald), a widow wearing black gown with veil over her eyes, is spotted by Captain Danilo (Maurice Chevalier), an officer of the royal guard marching down the street with the other soldiers. A popular ladies man, Danilo bribes guards and dog (with food, of course) to climb over the garden wall to make the acquaintance with the widow to receive the answer of "if" and "when" they should meet again. Sonia shows no interest in the conceded young man and sends Danilo on his way. Through the passage of time, Sonia finds her diary with nothing posted, and decides that there's "a limit to every widow" by leaving Marshovia for the merry life in Paris. Being the richest widow in the world and controlling 52 percent of Marshovia's financial security, King Achmet (George Barbier) submits Danilo, having caught him alone in the boudoir of his very young wife, Queen Dolores (Una Merkel), to Paris with instructions to romance the merry widow Sonia and bring her back to Marshovia. Unaware of her identity, it so happens Danilo has already made the acquaintance of Sonia at Maxim's, under her guise of Fifi. After Fifi leaves him, Danilo disappears on a drunken binge. After being brought to Popoff (Edward Everett Horton), ambassador of Marshovia of diplomatic relations, he sobers him up to resume his mission with Sonia, whom, to his surprise at the Embassy Ball, turns out to be Fifi from Paris. Situations occur later that find Danilo facing a court martial and other series of unforeseen events.The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "Girls, Girls, Girls" (sung by Maurice Chevalier); "Vilia," "Tonight Will Teach Me to Forget," "The Merry Widow Waltz" (all sung by Jeanette MacDonald); "I'm Going to Maxim's" (sung by Chevalier); "The Merry Widow Waltz" (MacDonald); "I'm Going to Maxim's" (Chevalier); "Can-Can Dance," "Girls, Girls, Girls" (Chevalier); "The Merry Widow Waltz," "I Leave Maxim's to You," "Widows Are Gay," and "The Merry Widow Waltz." Of the song interludes, the most memorable happens to be "The Merry Widow Waltz" with numerous couples dancing down the hallway of mirrors. Chevalier and MacDonald dance briefly in a couple of scenes which make one wish for some more of the same. Other members in the cast of thousands include Minna Gombelle (Marcelle); Sterling Holloway (Mischka, Danilo's Orderly); Ruth Channing (Lulu); Donald Meek (The Valet); Herman Bing (Zixipoff); Henry Armeta and Akim Tamiroff.Previously filmed by MGM (1925) starring Mae Murray and John Gilbert, under the direction of Erich Von Stroheim, this MERRY WIDOW is totally different from the original silent screen adaptation, yet more faithful to the 1934 sound adaptation when remade once more by MGM (1952), adding lavish Technicolor starring Lana Turner, Fernando Lamas and Una Merkel (in a different character role of Kitty Kiley), this 1934 edition is most memorable due to the Franz Lehar melodies and its fine cast. Because of the latter remake, the 1934 edition was sold to television with a new title of "The Lady Dances" The original title at 99 minutes was later restored when distributed to video cassette/DVD and cable television's Turner Classic Movies.Though MacDonald was to have much more success at MGM (1934-1942, 1948), especially her eight film pairing opposite Nelson Eddy, Chevalier would resume his career in European cinema before returning to Hollywood in the late 1950s, with his most memorable role being the 1958 Best Picture winner of GIGI. Yet this is Chevalier and MacDonald at their prime and THE MERRY WIDOW being an exceptional operetta for them to end their partnership as a motion picture screen team. Have a merry time with this one. (****)

In the early years of the sound era Paramount produced a number of Ruritanian musical comedies, innuendo-filled romances set in often-fictional European countries, heavily in the mould of turn-of-the-century operettas. Most of them starred Maurice Chevalier and/or Jeanette MacDonald, and most of them were directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The Merry Widow, made at MGM some time after the original wave of movies had hit their peak and tailed off, reunites the two stars and director in a musical that is actually based on a genuine turn-of-the-century operetta by Franz Lehár. Was this a perfect partnership or a dead horse being flogged? Although I'm not too familiar with the original operetta, it seems the biggest survivor from it is Lehár's music, which contains many a fine and vaguely familiar tune. The plot has been given a makeover by frequent Lubitsch screenwriters Ernest Vajda and Samson Raphaelson, that is very typical Vajda/Raphaelson material, a frothy comedy of errors that seems to take place in a land where adultery has the status of a national sport. There seems to have been a bit of simplification and truncation to make way for the musical numbers however. For example, we get the lengthy "Tonight Will Teach Me to Forget" and surrounding business telling us MacDonald is besotted with Chevalier, but their only scene together before that is not substantial enough to suggest such a spark has been struck. The English lyrics were written by the great Lorenz Hart, so it's a pity Jeanette MacDonald's voice is at its most indecipherably operatic.The Merry Widow finds Lubitsch at his most stylised and baroque, with lots of deeply layered shot compositions reminiscent of his old studio-mate Josef "von" Sternberg's work. His musical sensitivity is more pronounced than it was in his earlier musicals, for example a burst of strings timed to a door opening on Jeanette MacDonald, or a line of dancers viewed from above seeming to filter down the screen, probably more than anything a sign of the game being upped by Busby Berkely and the Astaire and Rogers musicals. As usual however Lubitsch's forte is his comedic sensibility. For The Merry Widow a lot of scenes key scenes are stolen by some comic diversion, such as a shocked Edward Everett Horton grabbing at the coffee pot while offscreen MacDonald and Chevalier are realising who each other are. It's funny stuff but it does blunt the romantic angle somewhat. And it's not as if Lubitsch couldn't balance soaring romance with vibrant comedy (see for example the brilliant 1932 piece Trouble in Paradise).Happily, Maurice Chevalier hasn't lost his touch. There aren't too many songs for him here, but his flair for comedy has not lost its edge. He is simply superb in the scene where he induces MacDonald and the king to pretend that the three of them are having some jolly conversation. MacDonald too is acting well, although I do just wish her vocals were a little clearer. As usual there is a fine crop of characters here. George Barbier is the best of the bunch, very much getting into the spirit of things in what is one of his most prominent parts. On the other hand Sterling Holloway is underused and the normally-excellent Edward Everett Horton doesn't seem quite his usual self.All in all, The Merry Widow is a pretty-looking but rather disappointing affair. It doesn't really recapture the old magic of The Love Parade or The Smiling Lieutenant. Nor does it, I suspect, do much justice to Franz Lehár. By now the movie musical had moved on and far better stuff was being done elsewhere. MGM knew how to make a finely crafted production (well-deserved honourable mention for Cedric Gibbons and Frank Hope's gorgeous art direction), but this one just doesn't have enough heart and soul behind it.

When Jeanette MacDonald left Paramount and signed with her new studio of MGM it was her wish that she not do any more films with Maurice Chevalier. Though the three films she did for that studio with him were very successful, the two of them did not get along at all. She thought he was a rake, he thought she was frigid.So imagine her chagrin when she learned that her first MGM film, The Merry Widow which has some great songs for a soprano she would be co-starred once again with Chevalier. He wasn't exactly thrilled either, it was known he was hoping to do the film with Grace Moore. But they both went back to work for Ernst Lubitsch who had guided them in The Love Parade and One Hour With You. Lubitsch got the best out of them, especially Jeanette. There are some who say her work at Paramount with him is far superior to anything she would do at MGM, even with Nelson Eddy.Jeanette's the richest woman in the tiny kingdom of Marshovia, her taxes bankroll the kingdom. But she's bored there and cynical about all the men courting her for her money. The king and queen of Marshovia, George Barbier and Una Merkel, want to keep her Marshovian money in Marshovia so they send the most romantic guy they know, captain of the guard Maurice Chevalier as Count Danilo who cuts quite a romantic figure and romantic swath among the ladies.Of course he falls in love, but he's still got a roving eye and in his own way Maurice is as cynical as Jeanette. It will take some doing to get these two together.The Merry Widow had its American premiere on Broadway in 1907 and ran for 416 performances. The basic numbers of the score that Franz Lehar wrote are retained. My favorite is one of the best operetta numbers ever written for a soprano, Vilia. Jeanette sings it beautifully as she does the famous Merry Widow Waltz. And who could sing about the joys of courting Girls Girls Girls while hanging out at Maxim's than Maurice Chevalier? Lubitsch does a grand job at getting some real comic moments out of Edward Everett Horton as the Marshovian Ambassador in Paris who together with Herman Bing. I do so love the scene where Bing is translating the diplomatic codes for Horton with the king's editorial comments.Chevalier and MacDonald never worked together again, but they certainly went out on a high note (no pun intended) with The Merry Widow.

Interesting treatment of Lehar's "Merry Widow", almost 30 years after "Die Lustige Witwe" premiered in Vienna. There were many versions of The Merry Widow but this particular story is all jumbled up from the original. It's supposed to open in Paris but instead, we're in Marshovia which gives us a very slow opening. The English translation is by the screenplay writers, Vajda and Raphaelson and the lyrics are by Rodgers and Hart. Don't expect a true-to-the-original story. This story adaptation is okay although the original is charming by itself. However, the actors are very good and funny. The biggest song of the original, "Vilja", is very out of place right at the beginning and seems to have lost its charm by its placement. The widow of the original story is much more innocent - they cast her as a bit strident here. However, it is nice to see a movie that is pre-code. The costumes and the sets are sumptuous and beautiful. Chevalier and MacDonald are very good and Edward Everett Horton is a thorough delight.