The Merry Widow

Released Oct 11, 1934

1h 39m

Musical

Comedy

List

82%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

The kingdom of Marshovia is so small that one of its richest citizens, Madame Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald), is responsible for paying more than half of its taxes. Understandably, when she runs away to Paris and takes her money with her, it means disaster for the tiny country. In order to prevent a government collapse, King Achmet (George Barbier) dispatches dashing Count Danilo (Maurice Chevalier) to win back Sonia's allegiance and restore the nation to prosperity.

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Steve D

Not much here but Chevalier is fun.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Whenever you watch any movie with Maurice Chevalier, it’s hard to deny his abundance of charm. He feels like the type of guy that women would want to be with, and men would want to befriend (as long as he wasn’t with their women.) I did find it quite funny in The Merry Widow when he does both at the same time. In fact, the humor in situations like that is what allowed me to have a few laughs at his womanizing instead of just seeing him as a complete cad. It also didn’t hurt that Jeanette MacDonald was playing a different kind of character who didn’t instantly fall for his charms. Her resistance to his advances was a nice twist on the story I expected from this film. I loved her in the early scenes, and how comically over-the-top her transition from mourning to freedom seemed. She nails this character, and feels like a match for Chevalier throughout. Now, despite the positive twists they put on Chevalier’s promiscuity (and the fact that he was knocked down a few pegs because of it,) it’s still a character trait that I don’t love in a protagonist. I want to root for him as the suave leading man, but his behavior makes me think there might not be a happy ending after the events of this film conclude. Another thing that I didn’t love about The Merry Widow is more a fault with the audio technology of the time. Because they were still in the early days of talking films, the sound that was captured isn’t the best quality. This wouldn’t be a big deal, but they try throwing in a couple of songs, and the high-pitched tinny voice of Jeanette MacDonald was hard to understand. In fact, it was downright hard to listen to at all. Typically, I like a romantic-comedy that tries to be a musical, but this time I felt it could have done without the music altogether. I still enjoyed many aspects of the plot, and I think the lead performances were quite good. The Merry Widow might not be at the top of my list of films to watch again, but I certainly wouldn’t mind (I just might fast-forward the songs.)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/29/19

Full Review

Audience Member

The best musical movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

i watch this just because i love the silence version

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The old chestnut given the Lubitsch touch, with Chevalier & MacDonald in their final film together; a little draggy at times, but the music (including "Vilia," "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Maxims" and the title waltz) is still beguiling, with updated lyrics by Rodgers & Hart.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Jeanette MacDonald continues to be lovely and have a nice singing voice, but I really can't stand Maurice Chevalier; he's just too, "French."

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

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Ernst Lubitsch

Director

Maurice Chevalier

Count Danilo

Jeanette MacDonald

Madame Sonia

Edward Everett Horton

Ambassador Popoff

Una Merkel

Queen Dolores

George Barbier

King Achmet

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Meyer Levin (Patterson Murphy)

Esquire Magazine

A perfect realization of a director's dream. And when the director is Ernst Lubitsch, the picture rates very high...

Apr 23, 2020

Full Review

Ann Ross

Maclean's Magazine

Everybody's old favorite brought strictly up to date by Ernst Lubitsch, and very brightly acted, danced and sung by Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald.

Oct 11, 2019

Full Review

Helen Brown Norden

Vanity Fair

As directed by Ernst Lubitsch, this has its brighter touches, but underneath them all, it's still the same old hokum and I am pretty tired of it.

Jun 7, 2019

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Lubitsch's charming operetta, based on Franz Lehar's popular work, features great star turns by Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald in their last teaming together.

Rated: B+

Feb 3, 2011

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

The chemistry between stars Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald seems as tasty as a French pastry.

Rated: B

Jan 30, 2006

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 4/5

Jul 9, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

The kingdom of Marshovia is so small that one of its richest citizens, Madame Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald), is responsible for paying more than half of its taxes. Understandably, when she runs away to Paris and takes her money with her, it means disaster for the tiny country. In order to prevent a government collapse, King Achmet (George Barbier) dispatches dashing Count Danilo (Maurice Chevalier) to win back Sonia's allegiance and restore the nation to prosperity.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Screenwriter: Ernst Lubitsch
Production Co: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 11, 1934, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 17, 2017
Runtime: 1h 39m

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