I was slow to wake up in the morning, and I lay in bed as I watched “Naughty Marietta” on DVD. The stars were Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Elsa Lanchester, and Frank Morgan. Some of Victor Herbert’s famous songs were in the score, including one we would hear Madeline Kahn sing in “Young Frankenstein,” and that was “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life.” The plot involves a princess who wants to avoid an arranged marriage by escaping to New Orleans. There were suggestions in the story as to what men might do to the women, and what a woman lacking in character really was, but this is 1935. For a moment, I thought I was seeing “Captain Blood” again. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy become a popular screen couple with this movie, which is fun if foolish. I would say that the one most enjoyable scene was the Marionette Theater. I enjoyed some of the music, even if it was used as a torture device against a political prisoner in “Bananas.” I never found Jeanette MacDonald all that appealing. I remember her only from “One Hour with You” and “San Francisco.” She was a Republican, which I didn’t know until I read her bio recently. She and Nelson Eddy would appear together in seven more movies. Eddy was performing in Palm Beach, Florida when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on stage, and he died a few hours later on March 5, 1967 at age 65. Elsa Lanchester in this film was hard to recognize as the woman who would appear in “Bell, Book and Candle” and “Mary Poppins.” She had a couple of amusing lines about a horse. Frank Morgan’s personality and mannerisms were apparent to anyone who has seen “The Wizard of Oz.” Director W.S. Van Dyke would direct Eddy and MacDonald in six musicals, and Myrna Loy and William Powell in four Thin Man films. He received Best Director Oscar nominations for “The Thin Man” and “San Francisco.” He had cancer and heart problems, but he was a Christian Scientist. After finishing his last film, “Journey for Margaret,” he committed suicide on February 5, 1943. He was only 53 years old. MacDonald and Eddy both sang at his funeral. On February 8, 1960, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “Naughty Marietta” is a minor movie in film history. I don’t know how it came to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. It’s the type of movie I would have on the television as I did my homework as a kid. The plot certainly had its stale elements, but Morgan and Lanchester gave the movie some life. I would rather see a musical with Judy Garland or Cyd Charisse, however. According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for April 19, The Beatles released their single “Ticket to Ride” in the United States in 1965. In 1980, Blondie had the Number One single, “Call Me.” In 2001, the Mel Brooks musical “The Producers” opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. In 2012, Levon Helm died of cancer at age 71 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
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