Monte Carlo

When Jeanette MacDonald sang those lyrics she knew something better had to be waiting for her in Monte Carlo than what she was leaving. Jeanette who's a countess has run out on Claud Allister for the third time because she just can't quite take the plunge. She and her maid Zasu Pitts just hop the first train and it happens to be going to Monte Carlo.

Jack Buchanan who plays a count takes one look at Jeanette and knows she's for him, but the only way he can finally gain entrance to her rooms is pretending to be her hairdresser. So the games begin, those magical continental games that Ernst Lubitsch brought to the screen with that delightful Lubitsch touch.

Jeanette and Jack got to sing some nice songs written by Richard Whiting, W. Frank Harling, and Leo Robin chief of which are Beyond The Blue Horizon and Always In All Ways. The staging of Beyond The Blue Horizon was quite innovative at the time, the motion of the locomotive synchronized with Jeanette's voice. A prime example of the Lubitsch touch.

Jack Buchanan was a popular English music hall star who went back across the pond and appeared in several English films which occasionally were shown here. But his next American appearance was memorably opposite Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in The Bandwagon.

My favorite in the cast though is Claud Allister. That man took a patent out on playing silly upper class twits, usually of the British variety. No one else could do them quite as good. He's most memorable opposite Ronald Colman in two Bulldog Drummond films as his friend Algy.

A nice musical score and a cast more than capable of delivering the song and story with class makes Monte Carlo still a joy waiting for you.