The best movie musical you've never heard of

adamsandel

Only five years after the invention of talking pictures, Rouben Mamoulian created this wildly inventive, cinematic, featherweight musical comedy that was decades ahead of its time.

The entire movie has the lighthearted, devil-may-care charm of its star Maurice Chevalier, as a Parisian tailor who falls for a princess (Jeanette MacDonald who shows a seldom-seen flair for comedy here).

It's a screwball comedy in which the music is seamlessly integrated into the story. The songs by Richard Rodgers and the brilliantly witty lyrics of Lorenz Hart are both delightful and laugh-out-loud funny.

It has the sophistication and sexual sauciness of Broadway fare of the time, while other early movie musicals were still clunky backstage tales with disposable plots and paper thin characters.

A very young and funny Myrna Loy as a man-crazy countess is merely one of the delights of the pitch perfect supporting cast.

score 9/10

adamsandel 23 December 2020

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6391177/