Maytime (1937)
Directed & co-produced by Robert Z. Leonard (The Great Ziegfeld (1936)), with a screenplay by Noel Langley, this musical romance drama marks co-stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy's third (of nine?) film together. They're joined in the cast by John Barrymore, Herman Bing, Rafaela Ottiano, and Sig Ruman (among others). Herbert Stothart’s Score and Douglas Shearer's Sound, Recording received Academy Award nominations. The production (begun while Irving Thalberg was still alive) is huge, featuring elaborate sets indoors and outside including two May day celebrations.
Miss Morrison (MacDonald) is an old woman, living somewhat anonymously with her longtime loyal maid Ellen (Ottiano). A young neighbor, Barbara Roberts (Lynne Carver), who's having trouble deciding about her future with or without her young suitor Kip Stuart (Tom Brown), comes to her with dreams of becoming a famous singer like Marcia Mornay. Unaware that Miss Morrison and Mornay are one in the same, she gets an earful:
Miss Mornay had been a prima donna herself, trained for four years by Nicolai Nazaroff (Barrymore), she'd sung for Emperor Louis Napoleon (Guy Bates Post) and his court in Paris. Accepting his proposal of marriage out of gratitude, she had a chance meeting with another "American in Paris", Paul Allison (Eddy), himself a would-be opera singer under the tutelage of August Archipenko (Bing). Ruman plays Fanchon, a man whose opera tickets Paul steals to see one of her performances. Marcia and Paul then enjoyed a brief romance, unknown to Nicolai, before she returned to marry her Svengali-like tutor. While Paul returned home to America, Marcia and Nicolai toured Europe (et al) for seven years, during which she'd established herself, becoming known the world over. Upon her triumphant return to the United States, Nicolai insists that the opera selected for her first domestic performance be one which had been written specifically for her voice by Trentini (Paul Porcasi). The managers (which include Harlan Briggs and Harry Davenport, uncredited) suggest an unknown, yet talented tenor to Nicolai (e.g. to play opposite Marcia), and he unwittingly agrees to let Paul Allison fill the role. What happens next is a tragedy worthy of any opera.
Most Recent Additions:
I Want You (1951) - full review!
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!
Patterns (1956) - full review!
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!
Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!
To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!
The Actress (1953) - full review!
Mannequin (1937) - full review!
All My Sons (1948) - full review!
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!
State Fair (1945) - full review!
Billy Budd (1962) - full review!
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!
The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!
The Southerner (1945) - full review!
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!
The Arrangement (1969) - full review!
A Summer Place (1959) - full review!
Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!
Love Letters (1945) - full review!
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Come and Get It (1936) - full review!
The Prize (1963) - full review!
This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!
The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!
This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!
Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!
Baby Face (1933) - full review!
Titanic (1943) - full review!
Cover Girl (1944) - full review!
Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Pocket Money (1972) - full review!
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
Judge Priest (1934) - full review!
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - full review!
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Angel Face (1952) - full review!
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - full review!
Dallas (1950) - full review!
Springfield Rifle (1952) - full review!
Gaslight (1940) - full review!
The Gazebo (1959) - full review!
Passage to Marseille (1944) - full review!
The House on 56th Street (1933) - full review!
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) - full review!
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Lonelyhearts (1958) - full review!
Good News (1947) - full review!
Wild Rovers (1971) - full review!
Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) - full review!
Topper Returns (1941) - full review!
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]
