MONTE CARLO (1930)

The Countess Helene is about to marry Duke Otto after two false starts. Despite signs and banners about the sun always shining on them, it pours down rain and she leaves him at the altar for the third time. (Otto sings, "I really am a simple-minded soul" and the guests sing, "He’s a simp, he’s a simp." And he is a bit of a simp.) Helene and her maid Bertha get on a train to Monte Carlo, planning to win a lot of money at the gambling tables. She wins big at first but then loses everything, to the interest of Count Rudolph who watches from afar but can't get her to pay attention to her. He meets her hairdresser Paul who tells Rudolph how much she depends on him, so Rudolph pays Paul to vacate his position and let Rudolph take his place. She whimsically declares she doesn't like the name Rudolph so she calls him Paul, but soon he has become her servant and chauffeur. When she tells him she has to let him go because she's out of money, he pretends to gamble with her last bit of cash, then gives her money of his own to tide her over. Her affections for Rudolph fluctuate wildly—she is attracted to him, but he's just one of the help—until Duke Otto arrives to try and get Helene back. The finale includes Helene attending the opera of Monsieur Beaucaire, the plot of which involves a nobleman pretending to be a hairdresser for romantic purposes. When she sees Rudolph at the opera, she figures out what's going on, and unlike in the opera, a happy ending is in store for her.

An early sound musical from Ernst Lubitsch, this is operetta-like material that is played in a frothy manner in which nothing important ever feels at stake. Claud Allister, the pre-Code go-to guy for playing effeminate twits, is Duke Otto, so we know from the first moments that he won't wind up with Helene, played by Jeanette MacDonald, the queen of high-class 1930's romantic musicals. Jack Buchanan, a British musical comedy star who was little known here (his biggest Hollywood role was as the egotistical director in THE BAND WAGON) comes off a bit fey and maybe a little too old for MacDonald—he was around 40, she was not yet 30—but we know he'll win the damsel with his riches and his charms. I loved the first twenty minutes or so with its mobile camerawork and frivolous tone. The opening song, "She’ll Love Me and Like It," sung by Otto and the wedding guests, reminded me of the opening minutes of the Marx Brothers' classic ANIMAL CRACKERS. There’s another fun song, "Trimmin' the Women," an ode to hairdressing sung by the hairdressing men, and MacDonald sings "Beyond the Blue Horizon," which became a standard. But after a few minutes in Monte Carlo, things bog down a bit, partly due to Helene becoming less and less sympathetic. But on balance, this mostly remains bubbly fun. ZaSu Pitts has little to do as Bertha, the maid, and Tyler Brooke (Rudolph's buddy) and John Roche (the real hairdresser) are fine. Pictured are MacDonald and Buchanan. [Criterion Channel]