Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald at their MGM peak, in an entertaining melodrama musical which takes place in never never land on the studio backlot. It starts with an aged MacDonald giving a young couple some relationship advice then flashes back to her own operatic career. She is loved by her manipulative manager (John Barrymore) and decides to marry him for the sake of fame and her career.... despite falling in love with another singer (Nelson). She and Nelson are reunited but Barrymore gets out his gun... Poor Jeanette is left to mourn him and to wait until death.
In other words it's the same plot in a way as Barry Manilow's Copacabana or even James Cameron's Titanic. It worked then and it works here, with plenty of songs. I'm really starting to like MacDonald - she had spark and flair, a sense of naughtiness as well as class; Nelson Eddy is bland lunk but he does work well with MacDonald. Plenty of production values, including an elaborate re-creating of small town America (which tended to be MGM's specialty).
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