Review of The Girl of the Golden West

I am writing this review after my second viewing of this movie. After my first viewing, I thought it was trash but with time and a sequestered absence, my opinion has changed and I think it is the second best of the Nelson Eddy/ Jeanette Macdonald behind only the incomparable The Naughty Marietta. For one, Nelson Eddy had learned to act, not well but okay. Jeanette gives her best performance in this movie, and that accent is impeccable. The story is good with a lot of serious dramatic scenes including a scene at a log cabin that lasts close to twenty minutes and does not drag. You could cut the music out of this movie and it would still play like a romantic drama. Most of the singing is solid as Eddy was one of the great voices of the 20th Century. Walter Pidgeon as the spurned lover does his thang and Buddy Ebsen in a supporting role of a hick walks away with the whole picture. The basic plot of the Puccini opera is retained if not mangled and Belasco's play forms the basis for this movie. All in all, suprisingly low key in style but effective at heart.