Rose-Marie (1936)

An incognito opera singer falls for a policeman who has been assigned to track down her fugitive brother.

Director:

W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (screen play), Albert Hackett (screen play)

Stars:

Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jeanette MacDonald	...	Marie de Flor
Nelson Eddy	...	Sergeant Bruce
Reginald Owen	...	R.O. Myerson
Allan Jones	...	Romeo
James Stewart	...	John Flower
Alan Mowbray	...	Premier
Gilda Gray	...	Belle
George Regas	...	Boniface
Robert Greig	...	Hotel Manager
Una O'Connor	...	Anna Roderick
Lucien Littlefield	...	Storekeeper
David Niven	...	Teddy (as David Nivens)
Herman Bing	...	Mr. Daniells

Storyline

Opera singer (Marie de Flor) seeks out fugitive brother in the Canadian wilderness. During her trek, she meets a Canadian mountie (Sgt. Bruce) who is also searching for her brother. Romance ensues, resulting in several love duets between the two.

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Plot Keywords:

remake | character name as title | forenames as title | two word title | based on stage musical | 

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Taglines:

An opera star. A mountie. The Canadian Rockies.

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Genres:

Musical | Romance | Adventure | Drama | Western

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 January 1936 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rose Marie

Filming Locations:

El Dorado County, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Adapted from a Broadway play that opened on September 2, 1924, at the Imperial Theatre in New York and ran for 557 performances.

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Goofs

After the store clerk (Lucien Littlefield) tells Marie (Jeanette MacDonald) to go to the Mounted Police she wanders through the village and sees a poster stating that her brother Jack (James Stewart) is wanted for murder. The poster gives Jack's height as 6'1". Shortly afterwards, she again sees a copy of the poster listing his height as 6'1". Shortly after that she sees a third poster where Jack's height is listed as 5'8". (James Stewart was actually 6'3" tall.)

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Quotes

Marie de Flor: That's the worst orchestra and the worst conductor I've ever sung with!
[To the tenor]
Marie de Flor: And what was the idea of holding every high A longer than I did?!?

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Connections

Featured in MGM Greatest Moments: A Video Sampler (1987)

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Soundtracks

Indian Love Call
(1924) (uncredited)
Music by Rudolf Friml
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Played during the opening credits
Sung by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald
Reprised by them at the end

User Reviews

The Mounties always get their man

Jeanette MacDonald is "Rose-Marie" in this 1936 film also starring Nelson Eddy, James Stewart and Allan Jones. The movie borrows its title from the Rudolf Friml operetta, but it does not use the plot or many of the songs. MacDonald plays a famous opera singer named Marie de Flor whose brother (Stewart), going by the last name of Flower, has escaped prison and killed a Mountie. She leaves at once for Quebec and winds up meeting - who else - Nelson Eddy, a Mountie who recognizes her immediately and believes at first that he is helping her get to a rendezvous with a man. Meanwhile, he's falling for her himself.

Nelson and Jeannette were one of the great screen teams, and even now, they have fans all over the world. Jeanette was beautiful, a good singer and a fine actress, and Nelson, while not being much of an actor, was an attractive man with a magnificent voice. Their big hit, in fact, their signature song, "Indian Love Call," is from this film, as is, naturally, "Rose-Marie." Because of the recording devices used back then and the way female singers were taught, Jeannette's lyric-coloratura suffers somewhat. Like all female singers of that era, she has a back placement for her high notes, though the middle part of her range is quite beautiful. Her obsession with Tosca - one of the opera scenes shown, and a role she also performed on stage in real life - is a curious one. She had no business singing it, and neither did the tenor, Allan Jones, who was a lyric tenor. It's for a dramatic soprano and a spinto tenor. The Gounod "Romeo et Juliette," which she sings with Jones in the beginning of the movie is much more appropriate for both of them. Eddy, on the other hand, had operatic roots, and his baritone has survived very well. They sounded wonderful together, and there was something about them that just worked, even if he was somewhat wooden. She was spitfire enough for both of them, and it made a nice contrast. My favorite part of the film is when, after her guide steals her money, Marie goes looking for the job as a singer in a honky tonk café and tries to do "Some of these Days," which she sings operatically while attempting to copy the hoochie-coochie movements of the café's resident singer.

Stewart was slowly ascending the scale to stardom, getting better and better roles - he has a couple of big scenes in this film. He's boyish, good-looking and very effective.

Today I suppose these films seem very campy, and they've surely been parodied over and over again. However, the music is enjoyable, Nelson and Jeanette are treasures, and one can't help but marvel, amidst the insanity of today, what a much simpler time it was. People were able to be lifted out of themselves for a little while with fantasy and beauty. These movies must have been doing something right. Seventy-plus years later, we're still enjoying them.