CHOCOLATE SOLDIER

US, 1941, 102 minutes, Black and white.
Nelson Eddy, Rise Stevens, Nigel Bruce, Florence Bates.
Directed by Roy Del Ruth.

The Chocolate Soldier is an amalgam of many sources. The initial inspiration was Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw which had been filmed in 1932. Shaw allowed some of the elements of his play into this concoction. The basis of the film was a play by Ferenc Molnar, The Guardsman (filmed with the Lunts in 1931). This is basically the story of an actor suspicious of his wife and testing her by disguising himself as a guardsman. This is the core of this film. There is also some music from the operetta, The Chocolate Soldier, by Oscar Strauss as well as some operatic interludes. The mixture is a familiar concoction of performance on stage, marital jealousies, happy resolutions.

After seven films together, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald? did not appear in this film. Nelson Eddy chose opera star Rise Stevens (who was to appear with Bing Crosby in Going My Way). Rise Stevens is a good actress with comic flair as well as a significant singer (and after her film and television career, she devoted her energies to opera as well as developing the Lincoln Centre in New York City).

There is some bumbling support, as usual, from Nigel Bruce and some acerbic support, as usual, from Florence Bates as the star’s dresser.

The film takes place over a couple of days, the couple performing on stage and bickering with each other on and off stage, especially during curtain call. The husband becomes even more suspicious and his wife ever more critical. He decides to disguise himself as a Russian guardsman – which gives Nelson Eddy the opportunity for some comedy, different kind of makeup and a very heavy accent. Rise Stevens seems to be enjoying the masquerade.

The film is very much of its period, in the tradition of the Nelson Eddy-Jeanette? MacDonald? musicals. It is light, not striving for any plausibility – but providing an opportunity for entertainment, music, comedy – and a little reflection on marital fidelity.