★ 6 / 10
Diplomat "Count Alfred" (Maurice Chevalier) is recalled to
CinemaSerf
Diplomat "Count Alfred" (Maurice Chevalier) is recalled to his home country where he quickly becomes the amorous pawn of the Queen (Jeanette MacDonald). She is…
Diplomat "Count Alfred" (Maurice Chevalier) is recalled to his home country where he quickly becomes the amorous pawn of the Queen (Jeanette MacDonald). She is looking to marry, but whom? She alights on "Alfred", makes him a prince so he is more suitable then subjects him to a rather humiliating wedding ceremony in which he is the one who promises to love, honour and obey! He's in love, though - so that's all fine. Until, that is, he discovers that being a trophy husband is a bit dull. He can't even have his breakfast on his own. Meantime, though, the Kingdom is having a bit of a cashflow crisis and the Queen can't afford any scandal as a loan is being negotiated. "Alfred" cottons on to this and realises this could could give him some leverage to change the hen-pecked dynamic of his marriage. Whilst all of these shenanigans are taking place "upstairs", "Jacques" (Lupino Lane) and "Lulu" (Lillian Roth) are having their own domestic squabbles but in a far more equilibrate state - even if she does always seem to end up with the upper hand. Victor Schertzinger and Clifford Grey have written half a dozen unremarkable numbers for this that Chevalier and MacDonald wade through without much emotion, and I felt that as the initially engaging relationship between this power couple shifted, so did my interest in a story with just too little chemistry on screen.
★ 6 / 10
A forgotten musical parfait with much to enjoy
An early musical (Ernst Lubitsch's first talkie), so the sound can be hard on the ears (especially Jeanette MacDonald's high notes). The plot as such is…
An early musical (Ernst Lubitsch's first talkie), so the sound can be hard on the ears (especially Jeanette MacDonald's high notes). The plot as such is forgettable, but see it for the performances.It seems odd to match Jeanette MacDonald's operetta singing with Maurice Chevalier's cabaret, but each gets their own numbers and they join in the middle for duets.Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth do two wonderful vaudeville style song and dance numbers.
★ 8 / 10
Our first visit to the Kingdom of Sylvania
It was really the film that established Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald as a musical comedy team - the first one of the American talkie period. They…
It was really the film that established Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald as a musical comedy team - the first one of the American talkie period. They would make four films in the end (THE LOVE PARADE, ONE HOUR WITH YOU, LOVE ME TONIGHT, and THE MERRY WIDOW). Four first rate early musicals... and they did not like each other! Jeanette rebuffed Chevalier's attempts at a closer relationship (she only liked Gene Raymond, whom she later married). He considered her a prude and hypocrite as a result. So, despite their stunning screen chemistry and string of successes their partnership faded. Nelson Eddy was waiting in the wings for her to find the proper partner.Chevalier is a Count who has been returned from a diplomatic post for a sexual scandal. The country is ruled by Queen Jeanette, and when she meets the charming Maurice she falls for him. They marry, but he finds that (under the guidance of her Prime Minister - Lionel Belmore - and his cabinet) she puts him aside on matters of ruling the state. Chevalier, normally the aggressor in sexual matters and in putting his own ideas out, does not like the self-image of being the boy-toy husband of the ruler of his native country. His idea would be more like that of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who became her chief adviser on political matters after their marriage. Here, however, while everyone is polite to him, they make it clear that constitutionally he is not to be involved in running the government.The film is a charming one - full of those "Lubitsch touches". For example, Chevalier's growing anger and impatience at his political uselessness is first shown when he asks one of the courtiers (who has just politely put him in his place), "Do you understand French?" "No, I'm afraid I don't.", says the courtier. Chevalier, with perfect timing, shoots out a long, furious diatribe of French, which one can tell is gutter language, to show his fury at his position - much to the dismay of the courtier. Later on, when the Prime Minister also puts down Chevalier's attempts at advice, he smiles and asks the Prime Minister, "Excuse me, but do you speak French?" Belmore looks at him puzzled, "Yes I do speak French." With an eat dirt smile, Chevalier says, "What a pity!" In the end, it is a financial crisis (which with typical Lubitsch humor can only depend on the foreign investors in Sylvanian securities, all of whom have to observe the reactions of the Afghan Ambassador - bearded Russ Powell - to a court function) that gives Chevalier his chance. Chevalier will only show his true love for his wife if she and the cabinet give him a voice in public affairs like Prince Albert had. And they give in.It would not be the last visit Hollywood paid to Sylvania. Unlike other Balkan pseudo-states, it actually reappeared four years later, though under more "sinister" circumstances. In 1933 the Sylvanian Ambassador to a neighboring country tried to use underhanded means to bring about it's annexation by his homeland. However, Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) did not count upon the Dictator of Freedonia (Rufus T. Firefly - Groucho Marx) and his three brothers to force him to surrender in a barrage of vegetables and fruit in DUCK SOUP.
100%
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6.9/10
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