Monte Carlo (1930)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Hans Müller (play)
Booth Tarkington (novel) ...

Release Date:

27 August 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

As intimate as a lady's boudoir! (original window card poster)

Plot:

Countess Vera von Conti checks into Monte Carlo. She's down to her last 10,000 francs and has fled from her husband-to-be...

Plot Keywords:

Countess | Love | Monte Carlo | Prince | Opera

Cast

Jack Buchanan	...	Count Rudolph Falliere a.k.a. Rudy the hairdresser
Jeanette MacDonald	...	Countess Helene Mara
Claud Allister	...	Prince Otto Von Seibenheim
Zasu Pitts	...	Bertha
Tyler Brooke	...	Armand
John Roche	...	Paul, the 'Real' Hairdresser
Lionel Belmore	...	Duke Gustave von Seibenheim
Albert Conti	...	Prince Otto's Companion / M.C
Helen Garden	...	Lady Mary in Stage Opera
Donald Novis	...	Monsieur Beaucaire in Stage Opera
Erik Bey	...	Lord Windorset
David Percy	...	Herald

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The song "Beyond the Blue Horizon," introduced here, became Jeanette MacDonald's theme song for the rest of her life. During World War Ii she changed the line, "Beyond the blue horizon lies the rising sun" to " ... lies the shining sun" because the Rising Sun was the symbol of America's enemy, Japan.

Goofs:

Continuity: Jeanette MacDonald is referred to as a blonde early on in the dialogue. She was actually a redhead, and no attempt was made to lighten her hair to make her look blonde. Her hair photographed the dark grey red hair usually reproduced as on the black-and-white film used in 1930.

Quotes:

Countess Helene Mara: After all there's a little difference between us.
Count Rudolph Falliere a.k.a. Rudy the hairdresser: The only difference between us is that you are a woman and I am a man. That's all.
Countess Helene Mara: No, I'm afraid not. I happen to be a countess.
Count Rudolph Falliere a.k.a. Rudy the hairdresser: Yes, I'm a... I am a hairdresser. Alright I am a hairdresser.

Soundtrack:

Day of Days

Where was the Lubitsch Touch when this film's leading man was selected?

The first twenty minutes of MONTE CARLO is so much fun and so promising that you might think you've happened upon one of Ernst Lubitsch's best musical comedies. The film kicks off with a highly amusing sequence at the palace of a silly aristocrat, where a wedding goes disastrously awry. First, the well-wishers are doused by a sudden rainfall (as we are shown a banner proclaiming "Happy is the Bride the Sun Shines On") and the members of the processional are forced to switch from a stately march to a mad scramble into the church. Then the groom is informed that his intended bride has fled . . . and we learn that this is the third time she has done so. The groom's father insists that the wedding gifts will not be returned, and sends his son out to calm the guests. The groom, Otto, is played by Claude Allister, a bizarre-looking character actor who specialized in playing silly ass Englishmen. Otto treats the crowd to a song assuring them that he'll retrieve his bride and that "She'll Love Me and Like It!" This number is hilarious, and whets our appetites for more.

Next we meet the runaway bride herself, Countess Helene (Jeanette MacDonald), who, with her maid (ZaSu Pitts) has hopped a train without even bothering to find out where it's going-- nor did she take the time, when fleeing, to dress in anything beyond her slip and a light jacket. Once in her compartment she quickly doffs the jacket. (Can you say "Pre-Code"?) After an amusing exchange with a train conductor played by former Sennett comedian Billy Bevan, Jeanette sets her course for Monte Carlo and then sits back in her compartment, gazes happily out the window, and sings the film's most famous song, "Beyond the Blue Horizon." This sequence is renowned among film buffs as one of the great musical numbers of the early talkie era, one which broke through the stage-bound conventions holding back other filmmakers. Here Lubitsch artfully combines a montage of traveling shots, the rhythmic sounds of the train, and the swelling strains of the orchestra and Jeanette MacDonald's voice to create a genuinely exhilarating number.

Unfortunately, once our Countess reaches Monte Carlo it marks the point where MONTE CARLO itself has peaked. From here on, the film steadily loses momentum and never again regains the propulsive cheer of those opening sequences. I'm not entirely sure why the famed Lubitsch Touch faltered in this case, but in my opinion the biggest single factor hurting the movie was the casting of Jack Buchanan in the male lead. Buchanan was a popular stage star in London but he didn't make it as a Hollywood star, and his performance in this film demonstrates why. To put it bluntly, the man is an oddball: spindly, toothy, nasal-voiced and entirely too pleased with himself to score a hit as an appealing leading man. I think Buchanan must have been one of those performers like George M. Cohan or Fanny Brice whose stage magnetism somehow didn't translate into movie stardom-- at least, not in this sort of role. He's ideal as the pompous stage director in THE BAND WAGON (1953), but that's an older, mellower Jack Buchanan in a funny character turn. Here, he's pretty hard to take, and none of his songs are as memorable or as cleverly staged as Jeanette's "Beyond the Blue Horizon." (And strangely, although he was known in England for his dancing, he has no dance numbers at all.) Instead, Buchanan is given the film's most campy, embarrassing song, a paean to barbering called "Trimmin' the Women," a number that looks like it escaped from the Celluloid Closet. Things get even worse later on when Buchanan turns macho and gruffly orders Jeanette around, which is like watching Franklin Pangborn play a drill sergeant.

With no Maurice Chevalier to play opposite (and Nelson Eddy still waiting in the wings) Jeanette MacDonald is pretty much left to her own devices. She's charming as ever, but can't carry the picture by herself. Still, even if a different leading man had been cast the script of MONTE CARLO falls short in the later scenes, certainly in comparison with Lubitsch's more polished works. Occasionally the visual comedy is boosted by some of the director's characteristic gags, such as the cute visual bits involving missing boudoir keys and a church clock with mechanical musicians, but the dialog isn't so good. Too many punch-lines fizzle out --even ZaSu Pitts has to strains for laughs --and too many scenes conclude on anti-climactic notes. It seems to me that Lubitsch showed more self-assurance in this film's predecessor, his first talkie THE LOVE PARADE, which was boosted by the charisma of Chevalier and some terrific supporting comics.

Fans of early musicals will want to catch the first two numbers here, but once you've gotten beyond that blue horizon and reached Monte Carlo you may want to bail on MONTE CARLO. After the first twenty minutes or so this film will most likely be of interest only to hardcore Lubitsch buffs and Jeanette MacDonald fans.