Rosalie

West Point cadet Dick (Nelson Eddy) falls for foreign princess Rosalie (Eleanor Powell). He doesn't know she's a princess, though (they never do in movies). Rosalie is called back to her country to marry another guy. Dick follows along to win her heart. When he finds out who she is and that she's engaged, he heads back to America. Then the movie ends with everybody miserable. Just kidding.

36 year-old Nelson Eddy as a West Point cadet is a stretch but we'll overlook that. He does fine and better than fine when singing. Eleanor Powell smiles her way through the whole picture but it's such a pretty smile that I doubt anybody minds. There's some funny parts, such as the airport guys and the ventriloquist bits. Great supporting cast includes Edna May Oliver, George Zucco, Virginia Grey, Reginald Owen, and future Oz costars Ray Bolger and Frank Morgan. Thickly-accented Ilona Massey plays Powell's friend. She's lovely to look at but hard to understand. With a cast like this and such good production values, it really should have been a classic. Unfortunately, there are some problems with it. For one, it's overlong. A movie with such a banal plot has no business being over two hours long. Also, the two leads have little romantic chemistry. They're both likable but there's just no spark.

It's a musical with Nelson Eddy and Eleanor Powell so, it stands to reason, most of us will watch for the singing and dancing. The Cole Porter songs are sung well. "In the Still of the Night" is the stand-out tune. As is usually the case with her movies, Powell's dancing is the highlight of the film. She gets three tap numbers, including an impressive routine on big drums. All three numbers are fantastic. Watching Powell dance is always a treat and you should watch the movie for that, if nothing else.

Writing comments about a movie like this one is difficult. The plot and dialogue are atrocious, but the score and visuals are first rate. So one splits the difference and gives it a "5." As some of the few comments thus far have implied, it is a formulaic comedy with loads of prominent character actors of the time reprising roles already played in other movies and on the radio. Audiences in 1937 were for the most part captive to that sort of thing. Diversity of tastes like that of today just did not exist, and everyone going to the movies in small-town America was inclined to go along with the gag mainly because it was literally the only show in town.

When as a lad I paid my 9 cents admission at the box office, I knew I was going to sit through anything they threw at me, including the newsreel at the beginning, the same old cartoons, a dumb serial episode with someone falling off a moving train at the end -- to be continued -- and a main feature in black-and-white that depended more on stock characters and situations than on anything new or scandalous.

Now I watch these same features on Turner Classic Movies with moody nostalgia and total suspension of disbelief. So what if Nelson Eddy at nearly 40 was playing a cadet of half that age? And what about my now knowing that his off-screen person was 180 degrees off the roles he played? His singing is still mesmerizing, an operetta voice the likes of which disappeared ages ago -- indeed a relic of the Nineteenth Century. Even an uncharacteristically inferior Porter tune like "Rosalie" gets a high-class treatment.

Sure, there are better musicals from the 30's, but this one is a piece of history as well as a minor work of art.

Take a major studio studio (MGM) celebrated for its musicals. Take a top director (Woody Van Dyke) known for his breezy direction of films like THE THIN MAN, SAN FRANCISCO and NAUGHTY MARIETTA, among many others. Take a handsome singing star (Nelson Eddy) who was the studio's biggest matinee idol at the time, getting more fan mail than Clark Gable. Take a charming young tap-dancing star (Eleanor Powell). Take a score by Cole Porter written especially for the picture, including `In the Still of the Night.' Add some popular supporting actors like Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, and Edna May Oliver, and, for those few who find a professional sneezer amusing, Billy Gilbert.

Take all these elements, spend a small fortune on sets and costumes, and turn out a picture which is among the worst ever made. It's inexplicable. The full-throated Eddy has been turned into a crooner, playing the world's oldest (36) West Point Cadet. Powell's dancing is sprightly but the big centerpiece number, danced on a series of huge drums, can only be called bizarre, Poor Frank Morgan is forced to do most of his performing with a ventriloquist's dummy. There are one or two cute scenes---Powell and Eddy obviously like each other---but mainly this picture is simply awful. What a waste.

The first half of this classic movie musical is good. The second half was a big disappointment.

The first half is interesting with likable characters and a couple of good song- and-dance numbers. The second half features a sappy romance and drags on too long.

Frank Morgan doesn't help things. His "bumbling king" character simply gets irritating after awhile. Eleanor Powell is miscast as a romantic "princess" lead. She just isn't that pretty or convincing as an actress. As everyone knows, she was a far better dancer than an actor

Nelson Eddy's singing is okay but, boy, does it sound corny and dated nowadays. Ray Bolger's comedy isn't funny; it's stupid.

On the positive side, some of the elaborate Busby Berkeley-type dance sets are elaborate and astounding. It's amazing to view. Powell's tap dancing is always entertaining, although I've seen better numbers from her in the Broadway Melody series.

I'm not much of a fan of Eleanor Powell even though she's a marvelous tap dancer. She always struck me as a cold fish - and there's very little chemistry between her and Nelson Eddy (who is in fine voice) so the romance between them seems totally artificial. So is the plot, which involves her being an incognito princess of a small European country, falling in love with football player Eddy, who follows her to her country when she leaves the States to marry a prince. If it weren't for the score by Cole Porter, it would have been a total bust for me. Although the film is vaguely based on the 1928 show of the same name, MGM head Louis B. Mayer opted to have Porter write a completely new score, supplanting the Sigmond Romberg-George Gershwin score of the original. The music is the best part of the movie, with the hauntingly beautiful "In the Still of the Night" a standout. There is some enjoyable comedy provided by Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger and Billy Gilbert, all of whom I enjoyed more than the leads. A bit long at 123 minutes, but worth a look mostly for the music.

Cole Porter reportedly hated the title song, but Louis B. Mayer loved it, and he was the man with the money, so it stayed. With its opulent sets and numerous extras, this was one of the most expensive films made up to that time, but it was also a huge hit.