La belle cabaretière

The story in this movie is a popular one. A play, an opera, and at least two movies. La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco. Its highly-publicized premiere occurred in New York City in 1910 Imagine a western soap opera being sung in Italian! The movie is based on the same play, adapted by the playwright, as was the 1915 version filmed by Cecil B. DeMille. The singing in the movie is great, Nelson Eddy and Jeannette McDonald are a great pair as usual. Worth a watch.

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy star in this musical western with more than a little comic charm and zip. Although there are no

"hits" in this musical, the songs are great and MacDonald gets to sing one of the best "Ave Marias" you'll ever hear. She also turns in one of her best comic performances as the "girl" who is rough hewn and runs a saloon in a gold mining town. A little long, but still one of the duo's best and most underrated films. Walter Pidgeon, Buddy Ebsen, Cliff Edwards, H.B. Warner, Priscilla Lawson, and Noah Beery are notable. The "Mariachi" number is nice as are a few of the songs. It amazes me that Jeanette MacDonald is so underrated as an actress. She not only has a fabulous voice, she could hold her own against any leading man and was also a charming comedienne, and she is splendid in this film.

Of the eight MacDonald/Eddy films, which is the only one that the music was written specifically for the screen? This one happens to be the answer.

Jeanette and Nelson had one thing built in their movies. All of them came from the stage and thus had built-in hit value already. Even with the original score, Girl of the Golden West, has an honorable pedigree as a David Belasco play and a Giacomo Puccini opera. It survives best as a Puccini opera because it's the music that you remember and not the Victorian dialog.

Watching it today you could describe it best as quaint. It might grate on modern tastes, but take it on it's own terms if you view it. Nelson has the best musical moment in this one with Who Are We To Say. In the supporting cast you will enjoy Walter Pidgeon,Buddy Ebsen, Noah Beery,Sr., and H.B. Warner.

Just a perfectly charming film that reveals its wonderful qualities more and more with repeated viewings. Jeanette really pulls it off as a "western gal" and her singing is, as usual, superb. "Shadows on the Moon" and "The Wind in the Trees" are just two highlights of many for me. A very lovely, fun and special film.

I am writing this review after my second viewing of this movie. After my first viewing, I thought it was trash but with time and a sequestered absence, my opinion has changed and I think it is the second best of the Nelson Eddy/ Jeanette Macdonald behind only the incomparable The Naughty Marietta. For one, Nelson Eddy had learned to act, not well but okay. Jeanette gives her best performance in this movie, and that accent is impeccable. The story is good with a lot of serious dramatic scenes including a scene at a log cabin that lasts close to twenty minutes and does not drag. You could cut the music out of this movie and it would still play like a romantic drama. Most of the singing is solid as Eddy was one of the great voices of the 20th Century. Walter Pidgeon as the spurned lover does his thang and Buddy Ebsen in a supporting role of a hick walks away with the whole picture. The basic plot of the Puccini opera is retained if not mangled and Belasco's play forms the basis for this movie. All in all, suprisingly low key in style but effective at heart.