Merry Widow [VHS]
Ernst Lubitsch's last musical teamed him with his two favorite performers, Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. It proved to be his last picture with either of the stars. Working with screenwriter Samson Raphaelson, he transformed the operetta that Erich von Stroheim had made in 1925 as a lavish silent melodrama into a frothy farce with wit, understatement, and a modicum of sexual innuendo. Chevalier stars as Danilo, the playboy captain of the guards sent to Paris to woo back the wealthy widow Sonia (MacDonald), whose purse strings control the kingdom's economy and could ruin it if she marries one of her doting French suitors. A merry game of mistaken identities, sparring romantics, and the teasing of would-be lovers lands Danilo in jail for treason and with true love his only hope. Chevalier plays his role with good cheer, gusto, and an ear-to-ear grin that wins over every lady on the screen, and MacDonald is at her sassy, sexy best, before her all-American image took hold in the Nelson Eddy musicals. From the opening shot, where a magnifying glass is brought to a map of Europe to pick out the tiny Kingdom of Marshovia, Lubitsch is in fine if somewhat restrained form, toning down his driest humor for the more stolid but luxurious MGM style. But he still sneaks in a couple of precode zingers: "Have you ever had diplomatic relations with a woman?" asks Ambassador Edward Everett Horton. Chevalier's sly smile is all the answer needed.--Sean Axmaker