NAUGHTY MARIETTA
US, 1935, 106 minutes, Black and white.
Jeanette Mac Donald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Elsa Lanchester, Douglass Dumbrille, Cecilia Parker, Walter Kingsford.
Directed by W. S. Van Dyke.
Naughty Marietta was the first of the successful teaming of Jeanette Mac Donald and Nelson Eddy. The film was based on a 1910 operetta by Victor Herbert. It was brought to the screen just prior to the era of Technicolor - but anticipates the MGM musical confections that were to come.
Jeanette Mac Donald, after some films at Paramount, moved to a successful career at MGM. She has a strong screen personality. Nelson Eddy sings pleasantly but is a somewhat stolid hero. The film has a good MGM supporting cast led by Frank Morgan at his most dithering and Elsa Lanchester at her most snarling.
The film is set in the never-never world of the 18th century - both France and New Orleans. It is colourful, at times comic, always artificial but, in an old-fashioned way, entertaining. Some of the famous songs are 'Tramp, Tramp', 'Somewhere I'll Find You, 'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life'. Direction is by W. S. Van Dyke who was to direct the stars in a number of their musicals.
1. The popularity of Jeanette Mac Donald and Nelson Eddy? Romantic couple? A couple out of artificial operetta? Romance, song?
2. MGM production values: 18th century France and its period, Louisiana and its atmosphere? Costumes and decor? The world of the nobility, of the military, of the bayous?
3. The musical score - as presented by Mac Donald and Eddy? The operetta style? The insertion of the songs into the screenplay? The popular favourites?
4. The atmosphere of 18th century France: absolutism, fixed marriages, international alliances, the escape of the Princess, the difference between Louisiana and France, the greater freedom, the military, the servants, law and status, the possibility to moving out West to a new world? A variation on the American dream?
5. Jeanette Mac Donald as Marietta, as Princess Marie, the arranged marriage, her reaction against the orders of the court, her life in France, her maid, the decision to escape to America, going on board, her deceiving the authorities, the shipwreck and the pirates, the encounter with Warrington and their clash, going to the town, the Governor, the convent, working in the circus, the discovery of the truth, the falling in love with Warrington, the danger for him, her agreement to marry the Prince of Spain, the final escape, the future?
6. Nelson Eddy as Warrington - military, in charge of his men, not wanting romance, falling in love, the clashes with Marietta, the discovery of the truth, saving her from advances, helping her escape?
7. The comic touches with the eccentric Governor, his nagging wife? The contrast with the gypsies and their help of Marietta? The atmosphere of the French court, Marietta’s relations? The atmosphere of New Orleans, free yet snobbish? An outpost of French empire?
8. The values underlying popular operetta, right and wrong, freedoms, romance?
