Friday, January 24, 2014

Movie review - "Rose Marie" (1936) ***

I didn't mind this Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald starrer, once I got used to the ridiculous of the concept. It helped this had a solid simple basic story full of conflict: opera star Jeanette heads off for the Canadian wilds in order to rescue her criminal brother and is accompanied by mountie Nelson Eddy.

Most of the running time consists of a road trip (well, mountain trip) between Eddy and MacDonald, leading to expected adventures: falling in the river, singing, squabbling, fish out of water comedy, him handing her clothes in her tent when she's had a bath and is flashing bare shoulders (an unexpectedly hot scene).

Eddy is - surprise - stiff and awkward but that suits playing a mountie and he teams well with Jeanette. (They apparently had an affair during production; if so it paid off because there's an earthiness to their chemistry.) There's a lot of warbling including the famous "Indian Love Call'.

James Stewart steals the film in a brief appearance as MacDonald's brother. His plot is resolved very abruptly - only two scenes really. But I guess what the public wanted was Jeanette and Nelson and that Canadian alpine scenery.

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