I MARRIED AN ANGEL

US, 1942, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Jeannette Mac Donald, Nelson Eddy, Edward Everett Horton, Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen, Douglass Dumbrille, Mona Maris, Janis Carter, Leonid Kinski.
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke.


This was the last of eight MGM musicals with the pairing of Jeannette Mac Donald and Nelson Eddy. Its appeal will be to those who love the golden years of Hollywood as well as the fans of the singing couple. Others may find it something of an antique and an oddity.

The film was based on Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers Lorenz Hart, principally the title song, I Married and Angel.

The setting is Budapest in the 1920s, the atmosphere of a middle European city, its high lifestyle, its aristocracy, the bankers – and ordinary people, like secretaries iin the bank. While the setting is some kind of realism, the bulk of the film consists of dreams which Nelson Eddy has, engaging in a different kind of romance.

He plays Willi, a womanising playboy, an heir to a banking family, expecting promotion but doing nothing to take responsibility. He is accountable to one of the executives, Whiskers, played by Reginald Owen who disapproves of auditors relationships. In the bank is one of the secretaries, played by Mona Maris, who is in love with him, and very supercilious to the other secretary played by Jeannette Mac Donald.

When a huge society ball is planned, Jeanette Mac Donald is invited, not as a compliment, but in a set up. It is a costume ball and she decides to go as an angel, getting nervous on entry, one of her wings getting unstuck, her meeting Willi but spending most of the time sitting as a wallflower eating some birthday cake.

Then the fantasy begins Jeannette Mac Donald appearing as an angel, in love with Willi, knowing all about him, commenting on him, discussing how different it is to be an angel in heaven and to be on earth. He becomes infatuated, falling in love with her, keeping the other guests from the party out of his office, deciding to marry her and go to Paris where he is pursued by his assistant, Peter, Edward Everett Horton.

This is all part of the dream – and the action recurs to Willi, asleep on the couch, then continuing his dream.

There are some risque ideas and lines, especially for 1942, about angels, becoming humans, their sexuality.

Ultimately, Willi wakes up, tells everybody, especially his confidante, played by Binnie Barnes, that he intends to marry – and then finds the secretary, noticing her resemblance, offering to marry her – with the approval of Reginald Owen.

There are several songs from Rodgers and Hart but the main emphasis is on the theme song I Married and Angel.

The film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke, who directed so many of the previous musicals.

Something of a historical piece.