Very different from the '36 Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy version. The screenplay more resembles the plot details of the 1924 play. However, it thankfully simplifies the excessively complicated romantic relationships of the play. The '36 version further simplified the romantic entanglements, with Eddy having no legitimate competition for Jeanette's heart. That's the way Eddy liked his films with Jeanette. Here, Howard Keel's and Fernando Lamas' characters compete for Rose Marie's(Ann Blythe) heart, although clearly she thinks of Keel's Mountie character as more of a father figure. Keel sings the classic Friml-Harbach-Hammerstein songs "The Mounties" and 'Rose Marie". Ann initiates the classic "Indian Love Call" on several occasions, with Lamas responding.
Blythe's frontierswoman persona will remind you of the character of Anne, in "Anne get Your Gun", and Calamity Jane, in the film of the same name, released just the year before. Keel was the male lead in both of those films, in which the woman eventually is 'civilized' sufficiently to become an acceptable mate for him. In this film, the same transformation is attempted. but, in the end, Keel realizes that Rose Marie, in her current state of mind, wouldn't be happy as a mountie's settled wife. She prefers to wander in the wilderness, as expressed in the new song by Frimi and Webster "Free to Be Free". Thus, he eventually facilities her reunion with wandering trapper, of dubious reputation: Jim Duval(Lamas), whose life he had recently spared, when he was wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of an Indian chief. In contrast, in the '36 film, the Mountie played by Eddy captures Marie's cherished brother, who had escaped from prison, and who presumably will be sentenced to death for a murder committed during that escape. Regardless, Marie's love for Eddy's character is not extinguished: a rather awkward response.
Superficially, the characterization of Rose Marie here couldn't be more different from the '36 version, where she has been a city-confined prima dona of the opera stage. However, they have the feminist commonality of initially feeling that they don't need a man and children to feel fulfilled.
Margie Main: the hotel proprietor, and Bert Lahr, as an aging Mountie, are included as would be comic reliefs. Lahr does get to do a humorous take on Keel's "Mounties", with "I'm a Mounty Who Never Got his Man", in his inimical style. Unfortunately, their main interaction together was deleted, although it's included as an extra on the current DVD release.
Keel seems unusually wooden, especially in his speech, in this film, compared to his other films I've seen: a charge often leveled(unjustifiably, in my opinion) at Nelson Eddy. Perhaps because he isn't the romantic lead? This, along with his monotone speaking is the chief distraction I find with this film. Ann is fine as Rose Marie, and Lamas as her new found 'bad boy' love, with a similar wanderlust.
In the play, Black Eagle is Wanda's lover, not tribal chief, and she kills him to protect another of her lovers, not included in this film, from his wrath. In the '36 film version, her role is minimal. However, in the present version, she kills Black Eagle as revenge for a beating by him for her dalliance with Duval. However, having seen Duval together with Rose Marie, as observers of the Totem Pole Dance, she remains quiet when Duval is blamed for the murder, partially as revenge for his abandonment of her for Rose Marie.
The Totem Pole Dance, staged by Busby Berkeley, utilizes a new song, rather than the original, as in the '36 version. It is a much more modern stylized dance than in the '36 film. Wanda is the lone female, surrounded by a bevy of men, who cavort with her. It comes across as a sort of fertility dance. Joan Taylor, who played Wanda, was most frequently cast in westerns, including some TV series.
Incidentally, sensible frontiersmen didn't wear coonskin caps in the warm season. They were too hot! That was just a standard Hollywood detail to denote a backwoods frontiersman(or woman, in this case).
Now that both this film and the '36 version are currently available for purchase on DVD, we can easily compare them. To me, both have their merits and minuses. However, I suspect the younger generation will clearly favor this version, for its CinemaScope filming and more modern screenplay and acting. However, I find the singing more fervent in the '36 film. Also, I generally prefer the acting of Jeanette and Eddy over that of Ann and Keel. I also prefer "Anne Get Your Gun" and "Calamity Jane" over this film.
Blythe's frontierswoman persona will remind you of the character of Anne, in "Anne get Your Gun", and Calamity Jane, in the film of the same name, released just the year before. Keel was the male lead in both of those films, in which the woman eventually is 'civilized' sufficiently to become an acceptable mate for him. In this film, the same transformation is attempted. but, in the end, Keel realizes that Rose Marie, in her current state of mind, wouldn't be happy as a mountie's settled wife. She prefers to wander in the wilderness, as expressed in the new song by Frimi and Webster "Free to Be Free". Thus, he eventually facilities her reunion with wandering trapper, of dubious reputation: Jim Duval(Lamas), whose life he had recently spared, when he was wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of an Indian chief. In contrast, in the '36 film, the Mountie played by Eddy captures Marie's cherished brother, who had escaped from prison, and who presumably will be sentenced to death for a murder committed during that escape. Regardless, Marie's love for Eddy's character is not extinguished: a rather awkward response.
Superficially, the characterization of Rose Marie here couldn't be more different from the '36 version, where she has been a city-confined prima dona of the opera stage. However, they have the feminist commonality of initially feeling that they don't need a man and children to feel fulfilled.
Margie Main: the hotel proprietor, and Bert Lahr, as an aging Mountie, are included as would be comic reliefs. Lahr does get to do a humorous take on Keel's "Mounties", with "I'm a Mounty Who Never Got his Man", in his inimical style. Unfortunately, their main interaction together was deleted, although it's included as an extra on the current DVD release.
Keel seems unusually wooden, especially in his speech, in this film, compared to his other films I've seen: a charge often leveled(unjustifiably, in my opinion) at Nelson Eddy. Perhaps because he isn't the romantic lead? This, along with his monotone speaking is the chief distraction I find with this film. Ann is fine as Rose Marie, and Lamas as her new found 'bad boy' love, with a similar wanderlust.
In the play, Black Eagle is Wanda's lover, not tribal chief, and she kills him to protect another of her lovers, not included in this film, from his wrath. In the '36 film version, her role is minimal. However, in the present version, she kills Black Eagle as revenge for a beating by him for her dalliance with Duval. However, having seen Duval together with Rose Marie, as observers of the Totem Pole Dance, she remains quiet when Duval is blamed for the murder, partially as revenge for his abandonment of her for Rose Marie.
The Totem Pole Dance, staged by Busby Berkeley, utilizes a new song, rather than the original, as in the '36 version. It is a much more modern stylized dance than in the '36 film. Wanda is the lone female, surrounded by a bevy of men, who cavort with her. It comes across as a sort of fertility dance. Joan Taylor, who played Wanda, was most frequently cast in westerns, including some TV series.
Incidentally, sensible frontiersmen didn't wear coonskin caps in the warm season. They were too hot! That was just a standard Hollywood detail to denote a backwoods frontiersman(or woman, in this case).
Now that both this film and the '36 version are currently available for purchase on DVD, we can easily compare them. To me, both have their merits and minuses. However, I suspect the younger generation will clearly favor this version, for its CinemaScope filming and more modern screenplay and acting. However, I find the singing more fervent in the '36 film. Also, I generally prefer the acting of Jeanette and Eddy over that of Ann and Keel. I also prefer "Anne Get Your Gun" and "Calamity Jane" over this film.