New Moon (1940)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

Captivating movie !

Blistering performances.

I just watched MacDonald/Eddy's other 1940 movie, Bittersweet, before this. It's really a study in contrasts. I found Bittersweet to be long and, largely, tedious. It took itself too seriously, didn't have very interesting music, etc.The movie, however, while I wouldn't rank it with the best early MacDonald/Eddy movies, was still a lot more fun, and certainly had a lot better music.The end left me with a question. A French ship arrives on the island where the rebels/pirates and the women have created a successful colony. It turns out that it brings news of the French Revolution. The King has been overthrown and France is now a republic. (It didn't happen that fast in reality, but this is not a History Channel documentary.) Eddy speaks of "Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood." We then see a band of pirates/rebels with their firearms over their shoulders marching off. To what? Why? Was this meant to strike contemporary audiences - the movie opened in New York on July 18, 1940, but was of course in production before that - as a reference to the French marching off to war against the Germans, who had invaded Poland in September, 1939, and would arrive in France in May, 1940? If so, it must have seemed very strange, as France had capitulated just a month before the movie opened, when Marshall Pétain requested an armistice on June 17, 1940.

These people are marvelous. The woman star is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and the man is beyond handsome, and these gorgeous people can sing, and sing beautifully. I've been unable to get the music out of my head. It is romantic and gorgeous and unforgettable. The story is old fashioned and as different from today's movies as daylight is from night. This movie is not edgy or raw, it is just the opposite. Just a wonderful emotional experience. (At the crack of dawn, my mother in law (we are staying with them for the weekend) dragged me out of bed and said that I had to see this movie and although we have little in common when it comes to taste in clothes and many other things, she was entirely right about this movie. Thank you Gina.)

The New Moon and Naughty Marietta get understandably confused in the minds of some filmgoers. Both are set in New Orleans during the French colonial period, both star Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, both begin with a ship crossing from France.But New Moon is set during the last days of Louis XVI while Naughty Marietta takes place during Louis XV's reign. This time it is Nelson who is the fugitive. He's a member of the aristocracy who's believing and preaching the ideals of the Revolution. He's slipped away as a bond servant sailing to New Orleans. In Naughty Marietta it's Jeanette who's disguised as a bondservant to escape an arranged marriage.Also both films have Nelson singing a rousing fight song for his followers in Naughty Marietta, it's Tramp Tramp Tramp, while in this film he exhorts and rallies his troops with Stouthearted Men.MGM did this film before with Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore at the beginning of the sound era. They made the mistake of changing the story line to fit the Russian Revolution. Here they wisely opted for the traditional locale.Jeanette and Nelson are in their traditional roles in the romance game. She with her kittenish ways, him with his put downs of same.The plot here calls for the two of them after escaping from New Orleans on the ship the New Moon (hence the title), to drop anchor at an island where the former bondservants set about to create at Utopian society. A little bit like Pitcairn Island in Mutiny on the Bounty. It only lasts a short while until news of the revolution in France arrives.I've often wondered how portraying a Utopian socialist ideal must have sat with the very Republican Jeanette MacDonald. I'm guessing she would have been glad of rescue for more reasons than one would think.Of course it's the music and the voices that one sees this film and the Sigmund Romberg-Otto Harbach-Oscar Hammerstein, II score was never better sung. The obligatory duet of Wanting You is heard and Jeanette is in particularly good voice in One Kiss. She also sings Lover Come Back to Me first alone and later with Nelson. That was the big hit of the score, sung by artists that range from Rudy Vallee to Ella Fitzgerald.Personally speaking I'll listen to any kind of music as long as I can recognize the melody. This film will have melody lovers everywhere entranced.

Saw this on Friday,13 December 1940 in Birmingham,a wonderful escape from the intense bombing. Eddy comes again in very fine voice,but not quite up to the standard of "Naughty Marietta," the first of the duo's film operettas. He has obviously gained significant weight: for example, he navigates with difficulty the gunwale of a ship which his comrades and he are attacking with strangely no casualties. The hit song in this operetta,which would not,I think,benefit from color because most of its takes are either at night or interiors, is "Wanting You",which the duo pulls off quite nicely.However,his emotional reactions during this piece,although adequate at the embrace,appear rather automatic,and do not compare with Allan Jones' tenderness in "Tomorrow is another day" (Day at Races,1937) or even the Red Shadow's pouring out his heart in the dated 1929 "Desert Song".His acting skills leave something to be desired:he turns his back on Jeanette during her vocal response,and shows deficiencies in emotional reaction. There is a marked antiquatedness in the dialog as in Jeanettes"I'll try my powers" when asked to sing "Paris" at the film's beginning, or her "Spare your minions!" when offered help in the captured ship. At times they are distinctly looking their ages.He is no longer the angular, gangling young Captain Warrington (lean and muscular) of "Naughty Marietta",but considerably "filled out." All the same,this is delightful escapist musical romance,with pirates, secret police,the French Revolution,sailing gunboats,Caribbean Islands,moonlight and beaches etc. I would strongly recommend this as a video played through an equalizer and amplifier perhaps with a sub-woofer,since the MGM musical recording is extremely good for the time.Romberg's operetta is not as classic as Herbert's "Naughty Marietta" and something is lost from the stage version with all its colorful choruses,reprises,but this is made up for in action and motion not practicable on the stage.