During the return of the Bourbons years after the end of the French Revolution and the brief reign of Emperor Napoleon, noblewoman Jeanette MacDonald escaped from an arranged marriage by her domineering uncle (Douglas Dumbrille) by posing as a scullery maid and heading to New Orleans where settlers are awaiting the arrival of potential brides they've never met. There, she waives off the many admirers while sparring with Nelson Eddy, a law enforcement official who rescued her and the other ladies on her ship after they were overtaken by pirates. Of course, sparring on film ultimately leads to love, and in their first film together, MacDonald and Eddy are a romantic duo who became more famous than MacDonald was with her first partner, Maurice Chevalier. The result is a fun, sometimes camp, pairing that isn't as classic as their next ("Rose Marie") or as romantic as their third ("Maytime", my personal favorite of their many teamings), but is lavish and equally memorable in its own right.
Today, "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" is best known to film audiences for its spoofing in "Young Frankenstein" (in fact, the sequences of the song in the two films sometimes seems like it could be taking place at the same time, even if one is in Europe and the other the newly civilized North America), and its other romantic song, "For I'm Falling in Love With Someone" was also utilized in the Broadway version of "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Elsa Lanchaster, who ironically played "The Bride of Frankenstein" the very same year, is very funny as Governor Frank Morgan's initially suspicious wife, dressed to the nines but complete with cockney vocals, lightening up the minute she finds out that MacDonald is descended from European royalty. Morgan as usual is typecast as a flibbertigibbet, befuddled by everything going on around him. Also very funny is a sequence of when the women first arrive in New Orleans where a desperate local searches through the various women there as if he were shopping for steak at his local butcher.
In their initial pairings, MacDonald and Eddy had tremendous chemistry, and you can see why they were so popular. His blandness in acting wouldn't be obvious until their later pairings. MacDonald is an expert comic, truly funny in a scene where she must disguise herself as the unclassy scullery maid, eating bread voraciously like a Parisian peasant starving under the cruelty of her own ancestors. The ending is the epitome of movie operetta camp, turning its constantly repeated love song into a march that may have you shedding tears in laughter.
Today, "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" is best known to film audiences for its spoofing in "Young Frankenstein" (in fact, the sequences of the song in the two films sometimes seems like it could be taking place at the same time, even if one is in Europe and the other the newly civilized North America), and its other romantic song, "For I'm Falling in Love With Someone" was also utilized in the Broadway version of "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Elsa Lanchaster, who ironically played "The Bride of Frankenstein" the very same year, is very funny as Governor Frank Morgan's initially suspicious wife, dressed to the nines but complete with cockney vocals, lightening up the minute she finds out that MacDonald is descended from European royalty. Morgan as usual is typecast as a flibbertigibbet, befuddled by everything going on around him. Also very funny is a sequence of when the women first arrive in New Orleans where a desperate local searches through the various women there as if he were shopping for steak at his local butcher.
In their initial pairings, MacDonald and Eddy had tremendous chemistry, and you can see why they were so popular. His blandness in acting wouldn't be obvious until their later pairings. MacDonald is an expert comic, truly funny in a scene where she must disguise herself as the unclassy scullery maid, eating bread voraciously like a Parisian peasant starving under the cruelty of her own ancestors. The ending is the epitome of movie operetta camp, turning its constantly repeated love song into a march that may have you shedding tears in laughter.