GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST

US, 1938, 121 minutes, Black and white.
Jeanette Mac Donald, Nelson Eddy, Walter Pidgeon, Buddy Ebsen.
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard.

Girl of the Golden West comes in the middle of the eight Jeanette Mac Donald- Nelson Eddy musicals. It was very popular at the time. Though they had been in the West, in the Rockies in Pose Marie, this was their main western musical. The music was by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Gus Kahn. They were soon to appear in Romberg's New Moon.

The film is standard Mac Donald- Eddy musical material - with the touch of the MGM western. The film has an interesting cast including Walter Pidgeon, a young Buddy Ebsen and Leo Carrillo. The film was directed by Robert Z. Leonard who made several of their films and made a number of classic MGM films like Pride and Prejudice as well as many routine films over several decades.

1. An enjoyable western musical? Its popularity in its time? Later? The changing musical styles over the decades?

2. MGM production values: western styles, studio sets, staging of musical numbers?

3. The popularity of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Mac Donald? As singers? As a romantic pair?

4. The prologue with the trek west, the young girl and her singing, the young boy and his hearing her? The background of the pioneers, the Mexican bandits, Father Sienna and the church?

5. Mary and her running of her business, singing, fondness for the sheriff, the friendship with Ramirez but not knowing it? Her discovery of the truth, her dread at his being executed, the escape and happy ever after? A vigorous heroine of operetta?

6. Nelson Eddy as Ramirez, as a young boy with the bandits, Father Sienna and his influence, his skill as a bandit - the robberies, his Mexican disguise, the encounter with Mary, posing as a soldier to meet her, his revelation of the truth, the confrontation with the sheriff, the wedding and the happy ending? Operetta hero?

7. Walter Pidgeon as the sheriff, devotion to Mary, after Ramirez, the confrontation, the wedding, his bowing out?

8. The gallery of people in the western town - the saloon, Alabama and his devotion to Mary?

9. Ramirez and his band, the bandits, their robberies? legacy of the bandit leader? Mesqueet?

10. Father Sienna and his influence on the young boy, friendship with Mary, the preparation for the marriage? His influence on their lives?

11. Traditional western background, the American heritage, right and wrong, law and order, all in the service of operetta?