bbmtwist This is the only one of Lubtisch's five films with MacDonald and Chevalier that can be considered a failure and primarily because of poor casting.There are lovely Lubitsch touches: the red carpet, the rain, the discovery of the missing bride, all without dialogue; the slap and the hair pat; the clock with first trumpet, then tuba, then flute; the elaborate four key locking of her chambers.The error is in casting Jack Buchanan, ugly, effeminate and silly, as her leading man. She runs to him from the equally ugly and effeminate Claude Allister. What were they thinking???? She needed a "man," not someone playing a man. I have no idea of the sexuality of either Buchanan or Allister, but she did not have a "real man" by Hollywood standards to play against, yet did her valiant best, as she always would in all her films. At one point in the dialogue, MacDonald accuses Buchanan of "not being a man at all."I'm not homophobic - I'm a gay man myself, but it must be said, Miss MacDonald was very poorly served in this outing. Yet, there is a grand original score, including two real gems: BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON and ALWAYS, IN ALL WAYS. Enjoy it for Jeannette, Lubitsch and the songs, despite the non chemistry with her leading man and the long, long dull parts of the play itself.Songs:Day of Days – Chorus She'll Love Me and Like It – Allister BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON – MacDonald GIVE ME A MOMENT PLEASE – MacDonald and Buchanan Trimmin The Women – Buchanan, Roche, Brooke WHATEVER IT IS, IT'S GRAND – MacDonald and Buchanan YOU'LL LOVE ME AND LIKE IT– reprise – Allister and MacDonald ALWAYS, IN ALL WAYS – MacDonald and Buchanan Give Me A Moment Please – reprise – Buchanan ALWAYS, IN ALL WAYS – reprise –MacDonald and Buchanan BEYOND THE BLUE HORIZON – reprise – MacDonald and BuchananMacDonald sings 5 songs: Beyond The Blue Horizon; Give Me A Moment Please; Whatever It is , It's Grand; You'll Love Me And Like it; Always, In All Ways – plus two reprises.

Neil Doyle Strictly for devotees of Jeanette MacDonald who have to see every one of her films. Pairing her with leading man Jack Buchanan is a big mistake here. He has neither the looks nor charm to be believable as her love interest.She does get to warble at least one attractive and well-remembered song: "Beyond the Blue Horizon," but all the other musical numbers are patter songs that merely fill in the gaps between some not too witty dialog.The tiresome tale is about a girl who runs away from her wedding and then mistakes a wealthy man (a Count) for a hairdresser. The mistaken identity goes on for almost the entire film without resulting in any real payoffs. Jeanette is her usual charming self but Jack Buchanan is really wasted here and never gets a chance to show what a great tap dancer he was--as in "The Bandwagon" years later with Fred Astaire.This is one even Jeanette's most ardent fans can afford to skip.

Cyke 102: Monte Carlo (1930) - released 8/27/1930, viewed 6/23/08.KEVIN: I feel compelled to keep this brief, because I don't think this movie will stick with me. I didn't hate it, I just couldn't fall in love with it like I usually do with Ernst Lubitsch. There were plenty of enjoyable moments to keep me watching until the end, but I found the love story somewhat confusing. I blame this on Jack Buchanan as the male lead. His character is not only a liar, but a manipulator and stalker, and I must say there wasn't anything terribly charming about him. Buchanan played him just too creepy for me to root for him. Jeanette MacDonald was excellent, as usual, but her growing infatuation with this creep was what really confused me. I suspect when we've watched all of Lubitsch's other hits, this one will not rank so high.DOUG: Only Ernst Lubitsch could make such a breezy, likable comedy with such despicable characters. Jeanette MacDonald plays the flighty, naïve Countess Helene, who ditches her wedding to head off somewhere fun and ends up in Monte Carlo. Jack Buchanen plays Count Rudolph, a total creep who decides to court Helene by getting hired as her barber and stalking her at every turn. Claud Allister plays Prince Otto, the dim-witted older man Helene is set to marry. The proceedings are amusing in that fun Lubitsch kind of way; everyone's just on the edge of crazy throughout and are all the more enjoyable for it. The love story is rather dated though; I found Rudy to be an obsessive manipulative loon, scheming his way into her bedroom and saving locks of her hair. Because it's Lubitsch, it's all fluffy and lighthearted, but this is maybe my least favorite of his films so far.Last film viewed: The Divorcée (1930). Last film chronologically: The Big House (1930). Next film viewed: The Criminal Code (1930). Next film chronologically: Animal Crackers (1930).

mukava991 MONTE CARLO comes from the era when many film musicals were based either directly or indirectly on operettas. The farcical plots stuck to the formula of boy-meets-girl, boy- loses-girl and boy-gets-girl in the end. The boy here is the spiffy but not particularly magnetic stage star Jack Buchanan and the girl is a young Jeanette MacDonald. Under the direction of the great Ernst Lubitsch they shine. But character actor Claude Allister steals all the attention as the idiotic count whom MacDonald repeatedly jilts. He simply bursts off the screen with an extravagant absurdity, totally in the spirit of the style of the film. He has the same jovial, joyous persona as Maurice Chevalier who also excelled in this genre.The Lubitsch touch of hinting at or showing only the aftermath of key actions is much in evidence. Lubitsch also used extended bits of business with props to advance the plot or emphasize a character's state of mind. In this case MacDonald, trying to dampen her ardor for Buchanan after a romantic evening on the town, locks him out of her bedroom. To ensure that she won't be able to impulsively change her mind and let him in she locks the door key in a dresser; then she locks the dresser key in a jewelry box; then she places the jewelry box key under her pillow. And when her maid's knocking wakes her the next morning she has to go through the whole process in reverse while still groggy from sleep and she does so with spontaneity and expertise. Zasu Pitts plays the maid in a dry, tongue-in-cheek fashion without the whimpering and fluttering that eventually became her trademark. MacDonald acts as well as she sings and, curiously, looks older here than she did in her later films with Nelson Eddy. Perhaps MGM had better makeup and lighting staff.The songs are not great but not bad either. Of course, the highlight is Richard Whiting and Leo Robin's "Beyond the Blue Horizon" sung to the chugga-chugga rhythm of a passenger train with choruses of peasants joining in as the train passes. The only flaw here is that the mountainous scenery looks suspiciously more like southern California than the Alps.