Merry Widow The (1934)

Director Ernst Lubitsch‘s last collaboration with Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald is an entertaining tale about a womanizing Count (Chevalier of course) who is “ordered” to court a rich widow (MacDonald) that pays more than 50% of the taxes in the small country of Marshovia so that she won’t leave the country. When Chevalier’s character is caught in the Queen’s (Una Merkel) bedroom the King (George Barbier) ignores it because of the importance of the mission. But the main comic element stems from the fact that Chevalier’s character has fallen in love with Fifi who unbeknownst to him is actually the widow Sonia (MacDonald) trying to find happiness in the Paris nightclub Maxime’s before he must undertake his mission. Excellent support provided by the always reliable Edward Everett Horton; Sterling Holloway also appears. Songs sung by both leads with lyrics by Lorenz Hart (of Rodgers & Hart before Rodgers & Hammerstein). Cedric Gibbons shared one of his many Oscars with Frederic Hope (his only statuette) for Art Direction.

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