Maytime (1937)

Maytime (1937)

Directed & co-produced by Robert Z. Leonard (The Great Ziegfeld (1936)) with a screenplay by Noel Langley this musical romance drama marks co-stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy’s third (of nine?) film together. They’re joined in the cast by John Barrymore Herman Bing Rafaela Ottiano and Sig Ruman (among others). Herbert Stothart’s Score and Douglas Shearer’s Sound Recording received Academy Award nominations. The production (begun while Irving Thalberg was still alive) is huge featuring elaborate sets indoors and outside including two May day celebrations.

Miss Morrison (MacDonald) is an old woman living somewhat anonymously with her longtime loyal maid Ellen (Ottiano). A young neighbor Barbara Roberts (Lynne Carver) who’s having trouble deciding about her future with or without her young suitor Kip Stuart (Tom Brown) comes to her with dreams of becoming a famous singer like Marcia Mornay. Unaware that Miss Morrison and Mornay are one in the same she gets an earful:

Miss Mornay had been a prima donna herself trained for four years by Nicolai Nazaroff (Barrymore) she’d sung for Emperor Louis Napoleon (Guy Bates Post) and his court in Paris. Accepting his proposal of marriage out of gratitude she had a chance meeting with another "American in Paris" Paul Allison (Eddy) himself a would-be opera singer under the tutelage of August Archipenko (Bing). Ruman plays Fanchon a man whose opera tickets Paul steals to see one of her performances. Marcia and Paul then enjoyed a brief romance unknown to Nicolai before she returned to marry her Svengali-like tutor. While Paul returned home to America Marcia and Nicolai toured Europe (et al) for seven years during which she’d established herself becoming known the world over. Upon her triumphant return to the United States Nicolai insists that the opera selected for her first domestic performance be one which had been written specifically for her voice by Trentini (Paul Porcasi). The managers (which include Harlan Briggs and Harry Davenport uncredited) suggest an unknown yet talented tenor to Nicolai (e.g. to play opposite Marcia) and he unwittingly agrees to let Paul Allison fill the role. What happens next is a tragedy worthy of any opera.

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