This is one of the most problematic and, in the end, unsuccessful 1930s musicals I have ever seen.
It had everything going for it. The was very clearly a big-budget movie. MacDonald is really in very good form here, as is Jones. And there is wonderful chemistry between them. If this had been a better movie, it could, perhaps, have led to a whole string of good musicals with the two of them.
But things get in the way of this being a success.
The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes long, which is WAY to long for a 1930s musical, especially one with so little music. It starts out in a routine fashion, but there is FAR too much plot, and FAR too complicated - the politics in Spain at the beginning of the 19th century, which would have meant nothing to most 1930s Americans. That takes forever to work out, and who would care?* And then, in the end, where the story has become very dramatic and very complicated, suddenly we cut to Jones and MacDonald singing the two hit songs in a carriage, as if nothing else mattered. And it shouldn't have.
The fact that Jones turns out to be a French counterspy makes everything much too serious.
In short, the new plot that MGM came up with for this musical was its undoing.
Given the few musical numbers here, a 90 minute fluff plot would have been fine. 130 minutes of serious drama overwhelms the music, makes us forget the good chemistry between MacDonald and Jones, and basically ruins what could have been an enjoyable romantic comedy with music.
A shame.
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* Rewatching it on TCM, I thought about the historical circumstances of the movie, to see if all this historical plot could have been meant to have any contemporary relevance. Briefly, the movie deals with Napoleon's scheming to put a puppet, his brother, on the throne of Spain, so that he can annex it, and then the English efforts to work with the Spanish people, a sort of resistance movement, to drive the French invaders out. The Spanish Civil War had started in 1936, the year before this movie was released, but it's hard to see much parallel there. Austria had yet to be annexed, though its president had been assassinated in 1934. In the end, I can't see how all this plot could have been intended to be seen as commentary on 1930s European politics. Besides, using the French to represent the Nazis or the Italian Fascists would have been a bizarre thing to do, as by 1937 they were one of the major anti-Fascist forces in Europe.
It had everything going for it. The was very clearly a big-budget movie. MacDonald is really in very good form here, as is Jones. And there is wonderful chemistry between them. If this had been a better movie, it could, perhaps, have led to a whole string of good musicals with the two of them.
But things get in the way of this being a success.
The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes long, which is WAY to long for a 1930s musical, especially one with so little music. It starts out in a routine fashion, but there is FAR too much plot, and FAR too complicated - the politics in Spain at the beginning of the 19th century, which would have meant nothing to most 1930s Americans. That takes forever to work out, and who would care?* And then, in the end, where the story has become very dramatic and very complicated, suddenly we cut to Jones and MacDonald singing the two hit songs in a carriage, as if nothing else mattered. And it shouldn't have.
The fact that Jones turns out to be a French counterspy makes everything much too serious.
In short, the new plot that MGM came up with for this musical was its undoing.
Given the few musical numbers here, a 90 minute fluff plot would have been fine. 130 minutes of serious drama overwhelms the music, makes us forget the good chemistry between MacDonald and Jones, and basically ruins what could have been an enjoyable romantic comedy with music.
A shame.
----------------------------
* Rewatching it on TCM, I thought about the historical circumstances of the movie, to see if all this historical plot could have been meant to have any contemporary relevance. Briefly, the movie deals with Napoleon's scheming to put a puppet, his brother, on the throne of Spain, so that he can annex it, and then the English efforts to work with the Spanish people, a sort of resistance movement, to drive the French invaders out. The Spanish Civil War had started in 1936, the year before this movie was released, but it's hard to see much parallel there. Austria had yet to be annexed, though its president had been assassinated in 1934. In the end, I can't see how all this plot could have been intended to be seen as commentary on 1930s European politics. Besides, using the French to represent the Nazis or the Italian Fascists would have been a bizarre thing to do, as by 1937 they were one of the major anti-Fascist forces in Europe.