Monte Carlo 1930 - "Beyond the blue horizon"

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021153/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Main Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Jack Buchanan, Claud Allister, Zasu Pitts

"Monte Carlo was intended to build upon the success of the earlier Jeanette MacDonald-Ernst Lubitsch collaboration, the delightful Love Parade. Unfortunately, although it has one moment that is perhaps better than any isolated moment in the earlier film, Monte Carlo doesn't live up to its promise. Much of the problem is with co-star Jack Buchanan, who simply does not partner MacDonald as well as Maurice Chevalier did in Parade. He doesn't have the power needed to keep pace with MacDonald, especially at this point in her career, and there's a smugness to his personality that is annoying. Lubitsch has done his usual, dependable job of supplying the film with a great number of subtle, sly winks and of keeping the storytelling interesting, but the story itself is too old hat to succeed without a more consistently witty and involving script. Richard Whiting and W. Franke Harling's score is quite good, however, with 'Whatever It Is, It's Grand' and the marvelous 'Beyond the Blue Horizon' exceptional. The latter provides the film's highpoint, as part of the magnificent wedding sequence that opens the film. Lubitsch builds the number, matching the sound and movement of the train to the song to create a genuinely thrilling number. Had the rest of the film lived up to this terrific opening section, Monte Carlo might have been a classic rather than a moderately entertaining trifle." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/monte-carlo-v102788/

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San Francisco 1936 - A major Hollywood spectacle from the 30's

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028216/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,4

Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, Shirley Ross

"San Francisco had removed Miss MacDonald from the wooden Nelson Eddy and right into the arms of Clark Gable, with Spencer Tracy as her guardian angel, of sorts, to boot. MGM had assigned the dependable W.S. Van Dyke to direct this the company's second blockbuster of 1936. Nominated for both The Great Ziegfeld and San Francisco, Van Dyke ended up competing against himself at the Academy Awards, eventually losing to Frank Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town). Perhaps that was fair enough. If Mr. Deeds stands as a testament to Capra's genius (and writer Robert Riskin's), both San Francisco and The Great Ziegfeld remain crowning achievements of the studio system, MGM-style. Quite a few writers worked on the screenplay to San Francisco, including Herman J. Mankiewicz and Anita Loos, but only the latter earned an onscreen credit. While Van Dyke obviously stood for the major portion of the direction, everyone from special effects designer James Basevi to, reportedly, D.W. Griffith had a hand in there, the latter often credited with helming MacDonald's rousing pre-earthquake rendition of Gus Kahn, Bronislau Kaper, and Walter Jurman's famous title song. Had there been an award for Best Special Effects in 1936, Basevi would almost certainly have won, San Francisco's earthshaking tremors remain far more effective than such later 'spectacles' as Earthquake (1974), Panavision and Sensurround notwithstanding. Then again, maybe not -  nominated for Academy Awards in four categories, San Francisco lost in all of them, including Spencer Tracy as Best Actor, an honor which instead went to Paul Muni of The Story of Louis Pasteur." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/san-francisco-v42760/

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The merry widow 1934 - The musical that set all the standards

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025493/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Main Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel

"Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1934 musical comedy The Merry Widow, based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar. The apparent goal of MGM in adapting The Merry Widow as a vehicle for Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier was to emulate movies such as Love Me Tonight, which they'd made at Paramount - they even got Lorenz Hart, who'd co-authored the music from that film, to adapt the score for this production. And in the main it works as one of the best of the early MGM musicals, with memorably charming numbers amid a glittering setting, spiced with engaging moments of romantic comedy and misunderstanding (this is, after all, an adaptation of an operetta). The only reservation may be that there's nothing here as clever in design or execution as what Rouben Mamoulian achieved in Love Me Tonight. Not that it's the fault of director Ernst Lubitsch - it's more a matter of MGM weighing the proceedings down a bit in sheer opulence and sheer scope of the production, as though the studio never quite wants you to forget that this is an MGM picture. As a result, it's just a little clunkier and less light on its feet, in the execution (including the editing) than Mamoulian's earlier effort. Which doesn't mean that The Merry Widow isn't filled with brilliant moments, musical, comedic and otherwise, and have lots of inspiration - even the supporting cast, forget the two stats, have great moments, and the Franz Lehar music speaks for itself.
The Merry Widow was filmed several other times, including the 1925 silent version directed by Erich Von Stroheim and the1952 version starring Fernando Lamas as Danilo. - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-merry-widow-v32288

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Love me tonight 1932 - Warm love, hilarious fun, sweet music and hot lyrics!

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023158/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Main Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Myrna Loy

"One of the most technically accomplished and sophisticated movie musicals of the 1930's, Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight had a profound effect on the shape of the musical genre (especially the films of Vincente Minnelli), and remains a candidate for best movie musical ever made, some seven decades after its release. And that distinction is based entirely on its style and structure - it doesn't even take into account a hit-laden score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, or a raft of delightful performances, several of them totally unexpected in their range and wit.
Director Rouben Mamoulian had already jump-started the musical genre with the backstage drama Applause (1929), to great critical and financial success. In contrast to that movie's deceptively naturalistic approach to its subject, Love Me Tonight was highly stylized - Applause had no actual musical numbers in complete form, while Love Me Tonight was filled with incredibly elaborate and subtle musical set-pieces that grow naturally out of the plot (adapted from a play by Paul Armont and Leopold Marchand) and advanced the narrative. Some of the scenes here helped set the stage for works such as An American In Paris, Gigi and Funny Face.
The rhythmic street sounds in the opening Paris sequence, the precise cuts in 'The Sonofagun Is Nothing But a Tailor', the slow-motion fox hunt, and a parody of Sergei Eisenstein's editing style further attest to Mamoulian's technical acuity. With its cross-class fairy tale love story tempered by Ernst Lubitsch-style, pre-Production Code sophisticated comedy, and a supporting cast including Myrna Loy as a nymphomaniac , Love Me Tonight's non-musical content matches the charm of its songs, making it one of the best musicals of the 1930s." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/love-me-tonight-v100414

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