gkeith_1 I loved it that Ramon could sing! He did a good job, and so did Jeanette MacDonald.I was thinking that this movie was Pre-Code. I realized from my Ohio State film censorship course (Department of Theatre) that the Code began around 1931, but was not taken too seriously until perhaps not long after this movie was made.I WAS a bit shocked seeing Ramon leaning over Jeanette in her bed, and then I realized that the Code had not yet totally sunken its teeth into movie-making. Too see Jeanette's costume-changing in front of the men, and the tops of her stockings showing were more clues.I did not see this whole movie. I learned from other IMDb reviewers here that the characters cohabitated. Still, the characters' relationship looked just a little too smarmy for the censors who supposedly ruled in that era.Novarro's real-life private lifestyle, yes, got in the way of some of his recognition and career. Even further, his career was soon weakened by a Red-scare of the early 1930s.IRL, Ramon liked men. Still, actors have to play their characters properly. I have seen Ramon in films such as The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg and Mata Hari. In these, he definitely plays men who love women. Indeed, heterosexuals ought to be able to play gay characters. The reverse is also true that homosexuals need to be able to play heterosexual characters. As Ramon kisses women in movies, I think of Rock Hudson kissing Doris Day -- and later people said they thought all along that Rock was heterosexual in real life. Not!When actors portray animals on stage, it does not matter the gender of the actor. A man can be dressed up in a cow's costume, which is a feminine character. If an actor is dressed as an earthworm, does anyone ask the actor if he/she is asexual? I think Ramon was a very handsome man. Jeanette was very beautiful, and I have always loved her singing voice.It was good to see Hersholt, Morgan and Butterworth here. I enjoyed Morgan trying to be a romantic character here, whereas in the later Wizard of Oz he has no interest in the opposite sex -- perhaps he had an affair with the Wicked Witches or the Good Witch of the North (Glinda/Billie Burke). We will never know, however.I was both shocked and thrilled to see the color segment at the end. This was quite satisfying.As opposed to some other reviewers, I usually like Jeanette's pairings with Nelson Eddy. I have heard that Nelson was a divo who did not want Jeanette upstaging him, but what do you expect?9/10, because I feel that this movie moved (pun) very slowly. I FF'd through a lot, but feel that I saw enough to make this review.

bbmtwist This is sheer delight-nothing new in the story line, but such music and such directorial pacing, plus exuberant and lovely performances from MacDonald and Novarro with able support from Butterworth and Morgan. This is a brisk film- adapting Kern and Harbach's operetta/musical comedy pastiche from 1931 (355 performances on Broadway, just under a year, despite the MGM posters' boasts that it played two years on Broadway).Songs are rarely production numbers, they start, they are expanded, they are re-prised, much like what Hammerstein wanted musical theater to be {Kern had created SHOW BOAT with Hammerstein four years earlier and perhaps caught the bug].Both MacDonald and Novarro are wonderful, romantic and with great chemistry. Charles Butterworth is wonderful as always in support, as is Frank Morgan.This was the fifth and final film of Vivienne Segal, Broadway star of Rodgers and Hart's A CONNECTICUT YANKEE and PAL JOEY. She made 5 full length films, four of them in full two- strip Technicolor - two are lost, one survives in black and white only. She has here two sequences as an established star - one 3.5 minutes and one 3 minutes. It's her farewell to film, but she exits beautifully and wisely. The numbers: Impressions In A Harlem Flat (piano); She Didn't Say Yes; A New Love Is Old; The Night Was Made For Love; I Watched The Love Parade; The Breeze Kissed Your Hair; One Moment Alone; Try To Forget.The hits were of course the standards: She Didn't Say Yes and The Night Was Made For Love.There is a three strip Technicolor finale that lasts four minutes.Most enjoyable and an absolute delight!

bob-790-196018 In the years before she teamed up with Nelson Eddy and became the object of later camp mockery, Jeannette MacDonald starred in several bright, sophisticated musical comedies directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and in one of the greatest of all musical films, Rouben Mammoulian's Love Me Tonight. MacDonald had many talents, and they were all on display in these movies. She could sing wonderfully, act, do comedy, and be quite sexy.Unfortunately, while The Cat and the Fiddle belongs to this pre-Eddy period, it does not measure up to the other films. It has all the saccharine sentimentality--the corn--of old fashioned operetta without any of the high spirits and with little of the sophisticated humor. In addition, Ramon Novarro is no Maurice Chevalier. He is earnest but dull and too effeminate to be believable as the object of MacDonald's romantic interest. The best one can say is that he can sing reasonably well.Besides the pleasure of hearing MacDonald sing and do her best to inject some life and naughtiness into the story, there is one other high point: Charles Butterworth in his role as Charles, the goofy hanger-on with the absurd non-sequiturs. He was a delightful character actor of the time.There is one particularly good Jerome Kern song: The Night Was Made for Love. Also worth seeing is Vivienne Segal in one of her rare movie appearances. One of her greatest Broadway roles was in Pal Joey.

we2 There are so many things wrong with this 1934 MGM production. This is a semi-operetta, whose weak script and totally miscast stars drags this lavishly produced love story to yawnsville. The 31 year old perky MacDonald, who has noticeable dark rings under her eyes, plays the part of an 18 year old, to a weak voiced, and obviously effeminate 34 year old Ramon Novarro. The story is just plain silly. All but the final number where the boy gets the girl is B/W. Then like magic MGM pulls off their switch to color routine. The boy is holding the girl and singing of love when a tree in back of them suddenly sprouts and grows upward. It’s embarrassing and non too subtle. The supporting cast that includes Jean Hersholt, who went on to become famous playing Dr Christian on radio and in films, is wasted as an old man with too few lines. Leonid Kinskey is his same old silly self. The direction was nothing special, but can be forgiven due to the fact that color and sound was still being perfected. The script by Bella Spewack cannot be forgiven. It was just weak and unbelievable.What’s positive here? Words by Otto Harback and music by Jerome Kern. What little music there is shines. A lot more would have been a big plus. The best role was played by Frank Morgan, who later played Professor Marvel the Wizard of Oz. He was the much older rejected lover, and he played the part quite believably.Saying this, I would recommend this to students of ancient movie making. I often wondered about Novarro. I heard and read so much about him. To me he just doesn’t come across well. But, that’s just me.