New Moon

When first sold to television in 1957, this film was retitled Parisian Belle in order to avoid confusion with New Moon (1940), which was also in the same package of over 700 MGM titles. However, whereas Parisian Belle would have been an appropriate title for the 1940 version, which followed more closely the original story, it was a misnomer for this 1930 version whose locale had been moved to Russia, and whose heroine, the Parisian Belle of the stage play and 1940 version, had now become a Russian princess. But it was so seldom broadcast at that time that nobody seemed to notice or care. Its first, and perhaps only telecast in New York City occurred on the Late, Late Show Monday 22 September 1958 on WCBS (Channel 2); in San Francisco it first aired Tuesday 1 March 1960 on KGO (Channel 7). Since that time, its original title has been restored, and its safely housed in the Turner Classic Film Library, from which it is occasionally aired on Turner Classic Movies.

The credits list "New Moon" as the title of the original operetta, but its title was "The New Moon".

Opening card: Through the Caspian, the most easterly of western seas, the ship New Moon drives toward the port of Krasnov, the most westerly of eastern towns.

Referenced in Deep in My Heart (1954)