Steve D
Only of note for Stewart.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/06/24
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Audience Member
Jeanette MacDonald is "Rose-Marie" in this 1936 film also starring Nelson Eddy, James Stewart and Allan Jones. The movie borrows its title from the Rudolf Friml operetta, but it does not use the plot or many of the songs. MacDonald plays a famous opera singer named Marie de Flor whose brother (Stewart), going by the last name of Flower, has escaped prison and killed a Mountie. She leaves at once for Quebec and winds up meeting - who else - Nelson Eddy, a Mountie who recognizes her immediately and believes at first that he is helping her get to a rendezvous with a man. Meanwhile, he's falling for her himself.
Nelson and Jeannette were one of the great screen teams, and even now, they have fans all over the world. Jeanette was beautiful, a good singer and a fine actress, and Nelson, while not being much of an actor, was an attractive man with a magnificent voice. Their big hit, in fact, their signature song, "Indian Love Call," is from this film, as is, naturally, "Rose-Marie." Because of the recording devices used back then and the way female singers were taught, Jeannette's lyric-coloratura suffers somewhat. Like all female singers of that era, she has a back placement for her high notes, though the middle part of her range is quite beautiful. Her obsession with Tosca - one of the opera scenes shown, and a role she also performed on stage in real life - is a curious one. She had no business singing it, and neither did the tenor, Allan Jones, who was a lyric tenor. It's for a dramatic soprano and a spinto tenor. The Gounod "Romeo et Juliette," which she sings with Jones in the beginning of the movie is much more appropriate for both of them. Eddy, on the other hand, had operatic roots, and his baritone has survived very well. They sounded wonderful together, and there was something about them that just worked, even if he was somewhat wooden. She was spitfire enough for both of them, and it made a nice contrast. My favorite part of the film is when, after her guide steals her money, Marie goes looking for the job as a singer in a honky tonk café and tries to do "Some of these Days," which she sings operatically while attempting to copy the hoochie-coochie movements of the café's resident singer.
Stewart was slowly ascending the scale to stardom, getting better and better roles - he has a couple of big scenes in this film. He's boyish, good-looking and very effective.
Today I suppose these films seem very campy, and they've surely been parodied over and over again. However, the music is enjoyable, Nelson and Jeanette are treasures, and one can't help but marvel, amidst the insanity of today, what a much simpler time it was. People were able to be lifted out of themselves for a little while with fantasy and beauty. These movies must have been doing something right. Seventy-plus years later, we're still enjoying them.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
Audience Member
You keep waiting for McDonald and Eddy to break out into something memorable like they did in "Naughty Marietta", but it never comes. Maybe it takes a little longer to associate yourself with the songs from Rose Marie. However you look at it, McDonald and Eddy were never given star treatment at MGM.
MGM would not find appropriate vehicles for these stars because Louis B, Mayer got involved in their personal drama, dooming their professional alliance to a scattering of films which could have been dramatically improved. Instead, they were deliberately sabotaged.
McDonald and Eddy deserved much better than that. So did we.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
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Audience Member
The best romance movie ever made! With the best movie song ever sung: Indian Love Call!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
Such a beautiful movie with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy! Awesome storyline too!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
08/09/18
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Audience Member
You don't have to be in love with me. I'll marry you anyway.
An opera singer discovers her brother is lost in the wilderness and is on a mission to find him. While searching she encounters a Canadian mountie that teaches her the ways of the wild. They quickly fall in love while also trying to accomplish their goal of finding the lost brother.
"When he hears that you'll probably spend the rest of your life in jail."
W.S. Van Dyke, director of The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Tarzan the Ape Man, Another Thin Man, Sweethearts, Marie Antoinette, and Forsaking All Others, delivers Rose-Marie. The storyline for this picture is just okay and fairly straightforward with some cool woodsy settings. The acting was just okay and the cast includes Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart, Gilda Gray, and Allan Jones.
"Are you out of your mind?"
I came across this movie on the schedule of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and had to DVR it since it had James Stewart in the cast. This was fairly good and not a waste of time, but this didn't have enough unique elements to recommend or standout in the genre.
"Don't ever think of nature as charitable."
Grade: C
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
Full Review
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