Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

fairweatherfan I first saw this movie as a Blockbuster rental with my husband and his late mother - 25 years ago. TCM aired it recently, and we recorded it and watched it on a Saturday night (it IS rather long, at 2 hours and 12 minutes!). I'm not a person who likes to watch movies (or plays, or TV shows) over and over again; when I was a young teenager my girlfriends and I would usually sit through THREE consecutive showings of a film - that must have "cured" me. After 25 years I did remember the highlights (even though my MIL did chat quite a bit during the movie), but I was surprised that I hadn't realized what a great job John Barrymore did! I had always considered him a bombastic stage actor, playing to the back rows of the second balcony. He is so SUBTLE and SINISTER in this. For this viewing I saw Maytime on a pretty-good quality Samsung wall-hung TV, but I truly would love to see it on the big screen, in a theater. The May Day scenes especially deserve that. The lack of color doesn't bother me, though it does remind me of Irving Thalberg's too-early death.

ilbarone139 This is an excellent film. Star Cast, Victorian Opulence, Splendid scenery etc etc etc.Although not a big fan of the great profile John Barrymore One can see here what a performer he was. His minor dialogue, all performance visual as Silent Films, The expressions on his face told the tale. Possible spoiler you understand my reference to Pagliacci. Should have been done on stage.Eddy was very good hi baritone.The incomparable Jeanette MacDonald. Her voice mesmerizes us all. Beauty Clarity perfect diction.Herman Bing in a comical role was silly; however this was 1937, hardly known..I viewed this movie numerous times in the past and when Turner TCM shows all Eddy/Macdonald movies this is my ABSOLUTE Favorite.I can only give ten stars worth much higher status. Unfortunately Ms. MacDonald died to young approximately 62. I am sure her husband Gene Raymond would concur.If you have opportunity to view this film do not hesitate your enjoyment would be unparalleled.

calvinnme This film was one of Irving Thalberg's personal projects. He had planned to make it a color film, but then he died of a heart attack in 1936 and the footage that had been shot was scrapped. A year later the project was resurrected resulting in the film we have today. It features the great voices of Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy, lavish production values, some great examples of McDonald's singing in her prime, and one of the last great roles the legendary John Barrymore ever had. Although the movie is 72 years old, I'll just warn you that what could pass for spoilers are in the rest of the review.I have the VHS tape, but I also saw it on TCM one night as part of their guest programmers' month. During the film's introduction, the guest host said something that forced me to look at this film in a new light. She said "it's a lot like Titanic". You know, she was right. In many ways if you delete the music, make the site of the entire movie a doomed ship, and make John Barrymore a worse shot, you have James Cameron's Titanic. It makes me wonder how much he was influenced by this movie when he made his own film.Where the films part ways is that this film more accurately portrays the attitudes of the times in which it was set than Titanic did. The love story is very moving and the music just adds to its poignancy. Also, John Barrymore turns in a perfect supporting performance as Jeanette's patron turned husband who realizes his wife doesn't love him but doesn't realize why until he sees Eddy and McDonald onstage together during a performance. Barrymore says few lines in this film, but his mannerisms and facial expressions say it all. If the ending of the movie doesn't tug at your heart, I don't know what will. Highly recommended.

Fisher L. Forrest Some where about a half century ago in Dallas, Texas, I saw a summer stock company present "Maytime", and I can tell you it was much better than this anti-feminist turkey. All of Romberg's lovely romantic music except "Sweetheart" has been tossed, a typical MGM trick, but Jeanette does get to sing some good stuff in its place. There's "Les Filles De Cadix", for example, but a good part of the end of the film is taken up by an ersatz "opera" called "Czaritsa", derived from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. You should plan to snooze through this, but set your alarm to wake up for the tragic ending. I won't tell you what it is, even if I did check the spoilers box.I used the phrase "anti-feminist" advisedly. The slant is (emphasised more in this film than in the operetta) that women should not want to have careers. That's for the men. The girls should just live for love, probably mainly in the kitchen and the nursery. To be fair, Jeanette isn't relegated to housewifely duties. In fact, she lives mainly in marble halls, but in this story she might not have been so lucky if she had given up her career for love.Hardly anyone shines in this botched "Maytime". Barrymore is uniformly glum, even when things are going his way. Eddy is an overbearing masher, the gods gift to women. Bing is embarrassingly unfunny in what I presume was intended as a comic relief role. Jeanette seems a bit thin of voice, but that may have been the fault of the recording, or aging of the source print. What is there to say good about it all? Well, the camera work is first rate, and MGM seemingly spared no expense for the sets.