Rose Marie (1954) Poster

(1954)

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7/10
The Canadian Woods, No Place For A Girl
bkoganbing13 April 2009
In this third film of Rose Marie and probably the last one we'll ever see, every single version of the film is different to each other and to the plot of the original Broadway show. Since operettas are a thing of the past I doubt another version would be made. Where would you get voices like Ann Blyth, Howard Keel and Fernando Lamas?

This version has Ann Blyth as Rose Marie, a trapper's daughter now alone out in the woods. Though she's pretty capable of taking care of herself, those in authority don't see it that way. Mountie Howard Keel brings her into what passes for civilization in the Canadian west at the turn of the last century.

Keel's seeing Ann in a whole different light when she puts on a dress, but trapper Fernando Lamas will take her any old way, so Ann's got to choose between them.

The main songs from the 1936 version make it here, you couldn't really do Rose Marie without Indian Love Call, The Mountie Song or the title number. Rudolf Friml wrote some other nice songs for the original Broadway production which didn't make it into the classic Nelson Eddy/ Jeanette MacDonald version or this one.

Friml contributed some new songs in what would turn out to be his next to last songwriting assignment and they're well suited for the voices that have to sing them. Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein, II did the original lyrics for Broadway, but in this Paul Francis Webster collaborated with Friml and provided the words.

For comic relief we have Marjorie Main and Bert Lahr, playing something along the lines of a cowardly Mountie. But actually he proves to be of invaluable help to Howard Keel.

Keel in his memoirs was not originally satisfied with the Mountie part, feeling he was written like a Dudley DooRight idiot in the first draft. Some considerable rewriting was done before he went before the camera.

He also tells of a practical joke that second unit director Howard Koch pulled on director Mervyn LeRoy by having Jack Benny show up in a Mountie uniform and mess up the takes of the Mountie Song. Benny and LeRoy were good friends and when LeRoy realized who it was, he broke up and shooting was done for the day.

Busby Berkeley got some work in this film, staging the Totem Tom Tom number. There are words to the song, but you won't hear any in this or in the earlier one. Totem Tom Tom is nicely choreographed. I'm always amazed at how Rudolf Friml who studied under Anton Dvorak in Prague before coming to America was able to capture the American Indian rhythm with that song.

This 1954 version of Rose Marie has enough merit to it that it does not suffer comparison with what Nelson and Jeanette did back in the day. Fans of operetta will like it, even devoted Eddy/Mac people.
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6/10
The great outdoors
marcslope20 April 2009
MGM's first CinemaScope musical is pictorially splendid, with what looks like on-location shooting of the Canadian wilderness, or a very good faking thereof. The lake and mountain vistas must have been spectacular on the big screen; even on a TV screen they're impressive. Also, the screenwriters dump the pretensions that marred the 1936 Nelson-Jeannette version and return closer to the 1924 stage story, streamlining it nicely and removing some of the clunkiness in the dialog. Only a handful of the original Friml-Harbach-Hammerstein-Stothart songs survive, but several of the new ones are by Friml, too (with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster), and one, "I Have the Love," is quite nice. Ann Blyth, while not credibly a backwoods French-Canadian, is lovely and with a fine set of soprano pipes, and Howard Keel reminds us again of how Hollywood underrated him--one of our most masculine musical leading men, with an easy understated acting style to back up his booming vocals. Fernando Lamas hasn't that much to do, and it feels unfair that one of Ms. Blyth's leading men has to be a good sport and just step back and let her love the other. And Bert Lahr may be a comic genius, but his and Marjorie Main's material is so rotten that you tend to forget it. Still, a couple of soundstage scenes aside, it's a gorgeous big-screen production, and not as dramatically inert as many other operetta-derived musicals. A very pleasant 107 minutes.
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A DVD issue would be nice!
gregcouture16 April 2003
Saw this on a massive CinemaScope screen during its first-run release at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California. If memory serves (since I haven't caught it on a Turner Classic Movies broadcast recently) it was enjoyable and nicely mounted, although I seem to recall that a lot of it was done on some massive MGM soundstages rather than outdoors in the northern California and Canadian locations. Of course that was usually the case with musicals with outdoor settings. Technical considerations prompted the studios to go the easy route of utilizing the more easily controlled environments of, in MGM's case, their Culver City, Calif. lot and stages subbing for the great outdoors. Howard Keel and Ann Blyth (and Fernando Lamas, too) acquitted themselves quite nicely in the vocal department. And any movie that gives us Marjorie Main and Bert Lahr for some expert comic relief is to be fondly remembered. Although its popularity may not merit it, it would be nice to add a DVD version, not yet available, it appears, of this widescreen/stereo remake to one's video library.
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7/10
Rose Marie
bonnermartin23 June 2006
I well remember seeing this movie when it was shown in New Zealand about 1955. It was an enjoyable movie and my desire to own it on DVD was only heightened when I recently saw it on Turner Classic Movies. Regrefully most TCM movies in New Zealand are a bit blurry and the sound track had lots of 50/60 cycle hum in it. It would be nice if it was to be released on DVD particularly if a little care was taken in restoring the visual print and the sound track.

The original sound track for Rosemarie was a magnetic 3 channel across the screen and 1 surround channel. With modern sound restoration and enhancement equipment that is available today, there is no reason why this could not be restored to quiet a presentable 5.1 sound track.

It disappoints me to see many of the fine old movies reissued with excellent visual print but little care having been taken on the sound restoration when as a sound engineer specializing in old recorded sound restoration I know much better could be done.
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7/10
Mervyn LeRoy the wrong director ?
jromanbaker27 February 2024
I watched this film and began to wonder why it was not working for me. I found it depressing and the more the film entered into the domain of hanging and murder, and the dark side of Fernando Lamas's relationship with a Native American woman and its terrible consequences I sort of turned off. I liked the film years ago and I am still enchanted by Ann Blyth's performance. Howard Keel less so and comparing his performance in ' Calamity Jane, ' which is a masterpiece of film making, I found him too overbearing and heavy. Fernando Lamas I liked, but even he had lost something of his blatant charm. I finally decided it was Mervyn LeRoy ( fine for his gangster films like ' Little Caesar ' ) but not for musicals. As the first Cinemascope film musical and despite its success I found it lacking in that light touch that the genre needs. One example and no spoilers the Busby Berkeley seemed loaded with threat towards the woman involved, and for me it left a nasty taste in the mouth of female exploitation and a sort of prelude to the violence to come. I am fully aware it must have been thrilling to watch in 1954 as many in the audience would have been old enough to see it in two previous versions. That said it is worth seeing, but in my opinion the dark taste remains.
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3/10
The worst remake I've ever seen.
lairds22213 July 2021
This is a poor excuse for a remake of the beautiful musical from the 1930's with Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy. I know the original is from the 20's, but I know nothing about that one. In this remake, the music is bad (except for Indian Love Song), and the change of characters and their roles makes me cringe. Who wants the heroine of the story to look like Davy Crocket, fall in love with a low life, and leave the hero of the story broken hearted? I could barely force myself to watch it. For those of you who love this remake, I can only assume you've never seen the best one from the 1930's. Three stars from me, and that's being generous.
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7/10
Disappointing!
JohnHowardReid29 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Copyright 3 March 1954 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 1 April 1954 (ran five weeks). Los Angeles opening: 2 March 1954. U.K. release: 20 September 1954. Australian release: 14 June 1954. 104 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: The beautiful daughter of an Indian chief (Yowlachie) is madly in love with a trapper (Lamas). The trapper is also loved by "a waif of the forest" (Blyth). Anyway, the trapper is arrested for murder by a Mountie (Keel), even though the Mountie is unsure of the trapper's guilt.

NOTES: The Rudolf Friml musical was previously filmed by M-G-M in 1928 with Joan Crawford and in 1936 with Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, and James Stewart.

It was widely rumored around Hollywood in 1954 that Ann Blyth's singing voice had "gone" and that she was dubbed in "Rose Marie". Certainly it does not seem like the same voice we heard in her first movie, "Chip Off the Old Block" (1944). In fact, being the bold young man I was in 1955, I actually asked Miss Blyth if she had done her own singing in "Rose Marie". She did not reply, so the mystery remains. Except for one little fact: In "One Minute to Zero" (1952), Ann joins Robert Mitchum in singing "Tell Me, Golden Moon". Her singing voice, to say the least, is weak and strained. Now it could well be that she had deliberately disguised her voice for that movie (it's also an outside chance that she was dubbed in "One Minute to Zero"), but there is no doubt that this episode sparked the rumor that her voice had gone.

COMMENT: Although it was compared unfavorably with the previous Jeanette MacDonald version by both fans and critics, this was nonetheless a great commercial success – thanks mostly to the novelty of CinemaScope. It also featured a thrilling production number staged by Busby Berkeley on – alas! – an extremely obvious studio stage. Unfortunately, Mervyn LeRoy, content to let CinemaScope do all the work, directed the remainder of the film in a somewhat plodding fashion.

OTHER VIEWS: The dialogue is long, the plot is ponderous. - Bosley Crowther.

A second-rate production… Howard Keel was the only one in it who could sing. - Powell Findon.
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5/10
Singing Mounties...oh dear!
Boba_Fett113819 July 2007
Aren't singing Mounties the first sign of the Apocalypse?

This is a below average standard MGM musical, from the period when the genre was already dying.

Problem is that the movie really lacks a good story. It's not until the second halve that the movie is finally starting to show some progress and some plot lines but it's then already too late to still really make something good of the movie.

The love story, which is always essential in this type of movies, isn't much interesting which is due to the characters and actors that portray them. Ann Blyth is mostly irritating with her thick overdone French-Canadian accent, that by the way seems to come and go randomly. She also doesn't look convincing enough as a woman who feels at home in the wilderness. She looks far too timid and pretty for that. Also hard to imaging that she would really fall and really become happy with such a 'criminal' as Duval.

The character treatment is also quite poor. Seemingly important characters just suddenly disappear out of the movie for too long and basically all characters are extreme stereotypes.

You know it's one of those musicals in which the characters just suddenly burst into singing, in the middle of some dialog, to express their thoughts and feelings. This always have been quite ridicules in my book.

The movie does get extra points for its environment. The Canadian natures serves as a beautiful backdrop for this movie!

Not a complete waste of time but still a below average late MGM attempt.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
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7/10
The first colour CinemaScope musical, and not too shabby either
TheLittleSongbird8 January 2017
It's hard to say which is the better film of the 1936 film, starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, or this version from 1954. Neither are "great" films but both are enjoyable in their own way, probably put them on the same level but for different reasons.

'Rose Marie' holds the historical distinction of being the first colour CinemaScope musical. This said, warts and all, it does have much more than just historical interest. From the rating, one would assume that it is a mediocre film or worse. To me, it is a long way from being either and not too shabby at all. If anything, while it could have been better, it's pretty good and the main reasons to see it don't disappoint.

Some of the comedy does fall flat, feeling both overegged and leaden, some of the dialogue being barely amusing. As a consequence of trying to do something with it, both Burt Lahr and Marjorie Main try far too hard and end up rather annoying, Lahr especially overdoes it.

The story is re-worked, and while less creaky, a little tighter paced and schmaltzy than the previous version, it's still a bit on the flimsy side with some character agreed being given short shrift and disappear without warning for long stretches. The first half also drags and takes a while to get going.

On the other hand, 'Rose Marie' looks great, with much made out of the marvellous scenery and done justice by truly beautiful photography. The standouts are the three songs lifted out of the operetta, being the title song, "Indian Love Call" and "Mounties". With the other songs, "I Have the Love" and "Free to be Free" are particularly lovely. The weak link is "I'm a Mountie who Never Got His Man" which isn't as well placed as the rest and barely passes muster as a particularly great song.

Furthermore, they are nicely and efficiently choreographed. The high-spot, and perhaps the highlight of the entire film, is the jaw-dropping choreography of "Totem Tom-Tom" (don't let the title fool you, it's hugely entertaining and nothing to be offended over). The romantic elements are sweet and touching.

Howard Keel is a little wooden at times but on the most part it is a robust and charming performance, and he sings magnificently as always. Lovely Ann Blyth, who also acquits herself well in the singing, and Joan Taylor (as a new character) are more than able support for him, and while Fernando Lamas seemed an unlikely choice for his role he pulls it off surprisingly well.

All in all, pretty good musical and more than just historical interest for being the first colour CinemaScope musical. 7/10 Bethany Cox
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5/10
Different from the 1936 version
HotToastyRag24 February 2018
The classic operetta, filmed into a movie in 1936 with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, was remade in 1954, but with significant changes. If you're used to the plot from the earlier version, you'll be surprised by this remake.

It was an obvious choice to place Howard Keel in the leading role, since he'd twice played a character who fell for a tomboy after she had a makeover. Ann Blythe took the title role, but even though she tried really hard, I found her character rather irritating. She plays a rough-and-tough young girl, brought up around Canadian Mounties, who doesn't really understand what it means to be a woman. Just when the sparks are starting to fly between her and Howard Keel, she gets distracted by no-good Fernando Lamas! It doesn't make any sense, and Fernando is portrayed as a scoundrel through and through.

All in all, it's wonderful to hear Howard Keel singing the title song, but I'm not the biggest fan of the famous "Indian Love Call" song, sung between Ann and Fernando. Unless you really love this musical, or Ann Blyth, I recommend sticking with Annie Get Your Gun.
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10/10
The First CinemaScope Musical--a Visual & Vocal Treat!
sdiner8218 February 2002
Why hasn't this MGM musical ever gotten the acclaim it deserves? The CinemaScope/Eastman Color cinematography of the Canadian Rockies serves as a dazzling backdrop for a rousing Mounties adventure saga. Which also happens to feature a gloriously composed and sung score--Ann Blyth and Fernando Lamas's rendition of "Indian Love Call" is enthralling. Check this out the next time it shows up on Turner Classic Movies. Like "River of No Return" (with Mitchum & Monroe--shot the same year in the same breathtaking locale), it was one of the first films to exploit the new anamorphic process in its full glory--and has never been surpassed.

With a deliciously hilarious romantic subplot involving those two comedic geniuses, Marjorie Main and Bert Lahr. What more could one want? As Howard Keel sings to Blythe in the course of the title song, "Rose Marie I love you" . . .
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7/10
A beautiful, romantic overlooked classic.
mark.waltz24 November 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The cannon of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy films have created a cult following over the years, and that fan base is well deserved. Of their movies, only one, "Rose Marie", was remade, although it is quite different from their version, which was a remake as well. All three versions take place in the Canadian Rockies and focus the love a rugged Mountie has for the titled character. In this version, Rose Marie (the lovely Ann Blyth) is a tomboy who is "Free to Be Free" until Mountie Howard Keel has her introduced to hotel proprietor Marjorie Main with (get this!) the purpose of turning her into a lady. Keel falls in love with the transformed Blyth, but she only loves trapper Fernando Lamas who is wanted for murder.

Unlike MacDonald and Eddy's version, it is not Rose Marie and the Mountie who sing the famous "Indian Love Call"; Lamas's trapper gets that honor, and it is one of the most beautiful duets on screen. (The same year, Jane Powell and Vic Damone did a beautiful duet of "Will You Remember?" from "Maytime" in the Sigmund Romberg bio pic "Deep in My Heart", making three Eddy/MacDonald duets recreated on screen that year, the other being "Deep in My Heart's" "Lover Come Back to Me" from "New Moon"). Keel gets to sing the rousing "Here Come the Mounties", but unfortunately doesn't share a duet with Blyth. That would be saved for Jane Powell and the similar backwoods setting of the same year's masterpiece "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers".

If the thought of Main as a Canadian Henry Higgins doesn't make you laugh, then pair her "Ma Kettle" with "Cowardly Lion" Bert Lahr as an aging Mountie fighting off her advances. A cut song between the two ("Love and Kisses") was on MGM's soundtrack album and later was part of the original "That's Entertainment Part III" additional footage tape of numbers not used for that documentaries theatrical release. Lahr's "The Mountie Who Never Got His Man" (written for the movie) did make it into the released print, and as a nod to his "Wizard of Oz" fans, Lahr utilized some of the same comic grimaces and even some sounds that resemble his lion's roar.

An opulent Indian dance ("Tom Tom Totem") was staged by Busby Berkley, and if you can get past the obvious backdrop, you will enjoy it. The fact that movie studios were still making operettas in the mid 1950's is pretty amazing in itself, and the result for "Rose Marie" is one of delightful adult romance.
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one of the best musicals of that era and i need the DVD
ireadalot20041 November 2004
when i saw Rose Marie i fell in love with it. it is a fantastic love story done in the mountains and with great songs, Indian Love Call is one of the best love songs i have heard. The scenery in the movie is to make you want more and want to be their. It is a fantastically done movie and the combination of Howard Keel and Ann Blyth was the best for this movie, since i saw this movie in 1955 i have never forgotten it and I have been looking for either a video or a DVD of this movie for many years. Please, please lets put this fantastic movie on DVD so that i may have a copy to join my other musicals of that era. They do not make movies like these any more. So again i beg of you please, please put with wonderfully fantastic movie on to DVD, so those of us who want it so much can have it.
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6/10
Guess there's more than Mountie that doesn't get his man (or woman)...
brchthethird6 January 2024
Bears little resemblance to the (better) MacDonald/Eddy version, at least what little I can remember of it. Very much in the style of musical that MGM would do for the better part of the 50's, for better and worse. As such, it was fine. Would have improved had they cut the entire Duval/Wanda subplot and just focused on Howard Keel and Ann Blyth. Busby Berkeley worked on the staging of the musical sequences --his last major theatrical film until 1962's Jumbo-- but there was really only one short sequence which clearly bore his fingerprints: the one involving the Native American medicine man (Thurl Ravenscroft, best known for How the Grinch Stole Christmas) and a group dance centered around Wanda. In retrospect, considering Berkeley's Hollywood career as just about over, this was a fitting bookend to someone whose very first Hollywood job was on the Eddie Cantor musical, Whoopee!, faint echoes of which appeared in that aforementioned sequence. Aside from that sequence, the best part of the film was a comic number by Bert Lahr, doing a more up-tempo variation on his big number from The Wizard of Oz ('If I Were King of the Forest'). For me, this lost steam about two-thirds of the way through and never really recovered. And I didn't like the ending either. Well-produced, but still rather middling.
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10/10
A beautiful, romantic musical
Sheila_Beers14 September 2005
Not enough good things can be said about this beautiful musical, one of my favorites. It has the right combination of romance, conflict, suspense, tragedy, and comedy in the plot. The setting is in the colonial or exploration era of Canada, and the rivalry between English and French Canadians is evident.

The story is about Rose Marie (Ann Blyth), a tomboyish girl that her guardian Mountie (Howard Keel) tries to civilize. Rose Marie is grateful to him, but she truly loves the French trader Duval (Fernando Lamas), who accepts her as she is. The unrequited love an Indian girl has for Duval adds to the conflict and leads to the tragic elements in the film. However, justice and a happy ending prevail.

I commend Turner Broadcasting for keeping "Rose Marie" alive by showing it on the movie channel, but I would love to have a quality DVD version. I hope it will be on DVD soon.

The film has inspired me to look for the sheet music and script from the musical, and I am very disappointed that I cannot find a "Rosemarie" songbook. If any music and script publishers are listening, they should have the score and script of this film in print.
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10/10
How can you miss with 2 of Hollywoods sexiest men. The music is wonderful
joelpfan-121 October 2007
I first saw this movie as a young girl. I have loved it ever since. How can one miss with 2 incredible men and a young girl with such voices and oh the music. Who cares if Ann Blythe can't sing quite as well as Jeanette McDonald. I love the Tom Boy think. I was one when I was a girl. YOu are suppose to go to a movie to enjoy and come out happy and this movie makes me feel good. I don't go to see if in one seen the actor is wearing black shoes & the next blue when it should be black. WHO CARES. Then you have the scenery. Beautiful. Bert & Margarie. Their characters are so funny & lovable. The whole group of actors make this a funny & enjoyable movie.
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8/10
So enjoyed this movie!
ljon-9897030 June 2022
This movie started out really slowly and I was prepared to dislike it....but it gathered momentum and became quite engrossing. All of the stars did an excellent job. They seemed to be acting in a very sincere way. I was amazed by the beauty of Ann Blyth's singing voice, and surprised that it was not used more by the movie industry. And of course there were the comic touches. I have always adored Marjorie Main.

The scenery of the Canadian Rockies was thrilling. The portrayal of Native Americans seemed more realistic than usual for the time period. Who can ever resist that incredibly beautiful song, "Indian Love Song?" A slow starting but very enjoyable movie, I think.
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10/10
Mountie Mike Malone is given the responsibility of taking care of a friend's young daughter before the friend dies.
rubyleah14 April 2009
Although I love the singing of Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, their acting is too much the product of that time, affected. That is why I prefer the 1954 movie version of Rose Marie, with Oscar-winning actress Ann Blyth who has a lovely young-sounding lyric soprano in the title role. The two male leads, Howard Keel and Fernando Lamas, have always been known to be excellent singers, as far back as I can remember.

I would like to refute someone's synopsis where he says that Rose Marie and the Mountie fall in love with each other. This is not true. The Mountie (Howard Keel) falls in love with his ward, but Rose Marie's love is Jim Duval (Fernando Lamas). Rose Marie sings "Indian Love Call" and "I Have the Love" to Duval and he to her. These two songs are among the most beautiful love songs ever composed. The exuberant "Free To Be Free" accurately evokes the feeling of preferring the state of "being free." Ann Blyth sings this with just the right amount of emphatic insistence and earnestness. I would love to know where I can purchase the sheet music of these songs, or even the entire Rose Marie songbook (movie version).
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10/10
DVD OR VHS of Rose Marie
jehret14 July 2006
I saw this movie when I was just entering my teen years... I loved it then and I would dearly love to see it again and own a copy of the movie. I can still hear that song Rose Marie in my head. I have the soundtrack record done on the smaller format 33rpm and don't even have a turntable to play it on so I can put the music on tape or CD...

The movie had two of my favorite actors of that time. Howard Keel - my all time favorite actor/singer. Though I could not watch him when he was on Dallas.. Fernando Lamas was also a favorite and I loved him in this movie although I didn't think he could sing all that great.

I have been checking for several years now and no luck so far. I keep hoping I will live long enough to see it again. Cheers All JE
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8/10
Born to be free is Rose Marie, in this CinemaScope version, mostly filmed in the Canadian Rockies
weezeralfalfa23 May 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Very different from the '36 Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy version. The screenplay more resembles the plot details of the 1924 play. However, it thankfully simplifies the excessively complicated romantic relationships of the play. The '36 version further simplified the romantic entanglements, with Eddy having no legitimate competition for Jeanette's heart. That's the way Eddy liked his films with Jeanette. Here, Howard Keel's and Fernando Lamas' characters compete for Rose Marie's(Ann Blythe) heart, although clearly she thinks of Keel's Mountie character as more of a father figure. Keel sings the classic Friml-Harbach-Hammerstein songs "The Mounties" and 'Rose Marie". Ann initiates the classic "Indian Love Call" on several occasions, with Lamas responding.

Blythe's frontierswoman persona will remind you of the character of Anne, in "Anne get Your Gun", and Calamity Jane, in the film of the same name, released just the year before. Keel was the male lead in both of those films, in which the woman eventually is 'civilized' sufficiently to become an acceptable mate for him. In this film, the same transformation is attempted. but, in the end, Keel realizes that Rose Marie, in her current state of mind, wouldn't be happy as a mountie's settled wife. She prefers to wander in the wilderness, as expressed in the new song by Frimi and Webster "Free to Be Free". Thus, he eventually facilities her reunion with wandering trapper, of dubious reputation: Jim Duval(Lamas), whose life he had recently spared, when he was wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of an Indian chief. In contrast, in the '36 film, the Mountie played by Eddy captures Marie's cherished brother, who had escaped from prison, and who presumably will be sentenced to death for a murder committed during that escape. Regardless, Marie's love for Eddy's character is not extinguished: a rather awkward response.

Superficially, the characterization of Rose Marie here couldn't be more different from the '36 version, where she has been a city-confined prima dona of the opera stage. However, they have the feminist commonality of initially feeling that they don't need a man and children to feel fulfilled.

Margie Main: the hotel proprietor, and Bert Lahr, as an aging Mountie, are included as would be comic reliefs. Lahr does get to do a humorous take on Keel's "Mounties", with "I'm a Mounty Who Never Got his Man", in his inimical style. Unfortunately, their main interaction together was deleted, although it's included as an extra on the current DVD release.

Keel seems unusually wooden, especially in his speech, in this film, compared to his other films I've seen: a charge often leveled(unjustifiably, in my opinion) at Nelson Eddy. Perhaps because he isn't the romantic lead? This, along with his monotone speaking is the chief distraction I find with this film. Ann is fine as Rose Marie, and Lamas as her new found 'bad boy' love, with a similar wanderlust.

In the play, Black Eagle is Wanda's lover, not tribal chief, and she kills him to protect another of her lovers, not included in this film, from his wrath. In the '36 film version, her role is minimal. However, in the present version, she kills Black Eagle as revenge for a beating by him for her dalliance with Duval. However, having seen Duval together with Rose Marie, as observers of the Totem Pole Dance, she remains quiet when Duval is blamed for the murder, partially as revenge for his abandonment of her for Rose Marie.

The Totem Pole Dance, staged by Busby Berkeley, utilizes a new song, rather than the original, as in the '36 version. It is a much more modern stylized dance than in the '36 film. Wanda is the lone female, surrounded by a bevy of men, who cavort with her. It comes across as a sort of fertility dance. Joan Taylor, who played Wanda, was most frequently cast in westerns, including some TV series.

Incidentally, sensible frontiersmen didn't wear coonskin caps in the warm season. They were too hot! That was just a standard Hollywood detail to denote a backwoods frontiersman(or woman, in this case).

Now that both this film and the '36 version are currently available for purchase on DVD, we can easily compare them. To me, both have their merits and minuses. However, I suspect the younger generation will clearly favor this version, for its CinemaScope filming and more modern screenplay and acting. However, I find the singing more fervent in the '36 film. Also, I generally prefer the acting of Jeanette and Eddy over that of Ann and Keel. I also prefer "Anne Get Your Gun" and "Calamity Jane" over this film.
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10/10
TRUlY WONDERFUL
grahamvr8 March 2019
I just purchased this on DVD. And the quality is excellent. Everything about this movie is excellent. The scenery is magnificent and YES most of the outdoor scenes were filmed on location. Really great cast from the MGM Studios like we will never see again. Great to see it again in it's original splendour. Thank you Warner Archive.
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