mark.waltz
For the first quarter of this deliciously silly but romantic operetta, Jeanette Macdonald is a shrewish diva who needs taming desperately. Tough Mountie Nelson Eddy is just the one to do it, suddenly aware that she's the sister of the Mountie murderer that he's searching for. Even then, he leads her along slowly, and pretty soon, their own Indian Love Song will be calling them.This comes from a style of musical that people either love OE despise, and surprisingly, there is a cult following for the team that dominated musicals for the remainder of the 1930's, if not as down to earth as the two other big musical teams, Fred and Ginger, and Dick and Ruby.The outdoor setting is beautifully filmed, with plenty of comedy and innuendo to balance the few remaining songs from Rudolf Friml's 1924 popular Broadway era. Eddy is commanding singing the "Mountie" song and humorously serenades Jeanette with the light hearted title song. For song and dance, there's a fabulous "Tom Tom" number that may be offensive to some today.Along with Nelson and Jeanette is a young James Stewart in a small role as MacDonald's brother. Una O'Connor, Reginald Iwen, Herman Bing and Jimmy Conlin with Allan Jones in a minor singing role. This may strike some people as corn, but Indian corn is an all American favorite past time.
weezeralfalfa
An adaptation of the 1924 stage production of the same name, with music by Rudolf Friml, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach. The intricately crafted, though highly contrived, screenplay is quite different in details from the play. Thank goodness, the complicated romantic entanglements of the play were pitched in favor of a simple triangle between prima dona opera singer Marie de Flor(Jeanette), Mountie Bruce(Eddy), and Marie's escaped convict brother, Jack(James Stewart)(Before she becomes acquainted with Bruce, Marie confided that the only man she loved was her 'kid' brother Jack). The setting moves from high society opera Montreal, to the Canadian wilderness, briefly back to city opera, then back to a wilderness retreat.The plot has Marie(who dubs herself Rose Marie, to Bruce), and Bruce working cross purposes in regard to the fate of brother Jack, without realizing it for most of their time together. Marie wants to find him to provide him with some money to hopefully escape to another country, while Bruce has orders to recapture the escaped convict, now with a murder charge added to his previous conviction of robbery. When the 3 unexpectedly meet in a cabin deep in the forest, Marie and Bruce are forced to confront their conflicting purposes regarding Jack. Bruce feels, despite his love for Marie, that he must take Jack in, probably to be executed. Stewart's Jack seems remarkably cooperative and laconic about the consequences of his recapture. Perhaps this sways Marie to unexpectedly not blame Bruce too much for having used her as an unwitting guide to her brother's whereabouts and refusal to ignore his duty as a Mountie, for the sake of their love. Consequently, as the two men ride off, leaving Marie behind, she unexpectedly again sings "Indian Love Call", which Bruce had previously composed on the spot, and sang to Marie, they then both singing it later. Bruce, however, doesn't believe that her love for him can survive this emotional insult, and doesn't seek her out after depositing Jack.Marie returns to opera singing in the limelight. However, during her singing in "La Tosca", she imagines she hears bits of "Indian Love Call", and essentially has a panic attack, eventually fainting. Apparently, her agent, played by Reginald Owen, arranged for a long period of rest for her, in a wilderness cabin. Apparently, he also learned of her relationship with Bruce, as he eventually arranged for Bruce to visit her. Wouldn't you know, Bruce arrives just as Marie is reprising "Indian Love Call", and chimes in as he enters, for a dramatic ending. A similar ending is seen in the later film "Holiday Inn", when Bing Crosby's character unexpectedly arrives to reclaim his runaway girlfriend, and he chimes in, while she is singing "White Christmas".The details of the screenplay had to be very carefully thought out to prevent Marie and Bruce from realizing they were searching for the same man for cross purposes, while finding excuses for their periodic rejoining each other, after a period of separation. Finally, Bruce finds out that Marie's professional name is Marie de flor, and remembers that flor means flower in Spanish(I thought she was French?), and jumps to the correct conclusion that she must be the sister of Jim Flowers: the man he is hunting. From that time on, he is even more keen not to lose track of her.Of course, "Indian Love Call" is the 'signature' song of this operetta, just as "ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" was the signature song in their previous hit "Naughty Marietta". However, several other songs were retained from the original play. Eddy sings his "The Mounties", while at the head of a detachment of mounties. Eddy later sings "Rose Marie" to denote his growing infatuation with her. The Indians sing "Totem Tom Tom", as in the play. Two new, less important songs were added. Marie sings "Pardon Me, Madam" before she leaves for the wilderness. Later, Eddy serenades Marie from outside her cabin window, with "Just For You". Between, poor Jeanette has to try to imitate Gilda Gray, as a hoochi coochi-like girl in a raucous frontier tavern, to try to earn a few coins, after her money was stolen by her half-breed guide Boniface.Two operas are partially performed: "Romeo and Juliet", in the beginning, and "Tosca', during Marie's brief return to city life. She looks especially elegant, and her singing is especially impressive in the later, until she becomes distressed. In both operas, Alan Jones was the lead male, Eddy insisting that his solo in the later be cut. Jones would replace Eddy as the male lead , with Jeanette, in "The Firefly": another adaptation of a Friml play.The original play featured a simple French girl of the Canadian prairie and Rockies, not an eastern prima dona. It's never clear in this film what region of Canada the wilderness journeys supposedly take place in. Just the fictional Lake Shibuga is mentioned, nestled in a mountainous region... In the later(1954) remake, in CinemaScope, the screenplay would return to a closer adaptation of the original play. Whether sited in the Rockies or eastern Canada, the real resident Native Americans there didn't make totem poles, as abundantly displayed in the native village. Such were only made by tribes along the Pacific coast.
Snow Leopard
Though somewhat uneven, with some rather slow stretches, the story and characters are interesting enough in themselves to make "Rose-Marie" watchable, and the cast also adds some important reasons to see it. It's not really among the best movies of its era, but it is entertaining enough to deserve being remembered, if for nothing else than to see Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in one of their best-remembered musical pairings. James Stewart, in one of his earliest roles, also gives a good performance as a character quite different from those he would play later on.The basic situation is interesting, though the movie takes longer than necessary to set up everything. Once Marie sets off to try to help her brother, it's much easier to maintain interest, especially once she and Eddy's mountie character meet up. The contrasting agendas and conflicting emotions that the two main characters feel present some worthwhile possibilities, and for the most part the story makes use of them.Most of the creaky parts are towards the beginning, although even later on the pace sometimes lags a little. Overall, it's probably a little above average, and made worthwhile for the cast and for a few of its better moments.
