Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

st-shot Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette McDonald hooked up for the first of their four pairings in this early sound Ernst Lubitsch musical. It's a silly affair as most musicals of the day were but this being pre-code director Lubitsch takes every opportunity to invoke sexual innuendo and keep Ms. McDonald in diaphanous negligees.Much to the disappointment of her ministers Queen Louise of Sylvania is resigned to the fact she will never find a suitable husband. Enter Count Renard who may not be suitable for affairs of state but irresistible in affairs of love. They marry and the free range rogue is quickly fenced in an ordered to act properly with his new title and responsibilities by Louise who pulls rank on him. Renaud soon begins to chafe at the trappings of royalty and what he sees as amounting to role reversal and decides to walk. Such a scandal could rock Sylvania to its foundation. A desperate Louise attempts to balance both issues without offending chauvinist Renaud's already wounded manhood.Inane as place and premise may be Lubitsh keeps things racy throughout while taking satiric pokes at societal hypocrisy and royal obsequiousness. He magnifies and compares the royal duo's predicament of maintaining decorum and propriety while the help, energetically and acrobatically performed by Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth, in unabashed declaration announce it's great to be a commoner.The set design and the cinematography by Victor Milner gives the film a 14 carat opulence and Mo and Mac look dashing and ravishing most of the time in uniform and gown which allows this fairy tale of a musical to play itself out whimsically and seductively courtesy of Lubitsch's deft touch.

writers_reign It's Lubitsch, it's got songs, what more do you want. Alas, it's also got Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier but you can't have everything. It's actually quite good, especially for 1929; okay, the songs could be better but the idea of integrating song and story was innovative and though Mamoulian did it better three years later this was clearly his blueprint - AND he had a score by Rodgers and Hart. Victor Schertzinger was a fine composer and later turned director and Clifford Grey was a competent lyricist so that leaves the story, a twist, one of several at the time, on The Merry Widow, which Lubitsch would film with the same two leads in 1934. It remains a fascinating record of Lubitsch's first talkie and early musical film.

theowinthrop 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.

Jerry Today, this film seems very dated. However, the wit of the writing and direction and the charm of the leading characters makes it still worth watching. The singing is enjoyable, but there are no particularly memorable tunes. The renowned "Lubitsch touch" is evident.