Maytime (1937)

People are voting emotionally.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I first saw this movie as a Blockbuster rental with my husband and his late mother - 25 years ago. TCM aired it recently, and we recorded it and watched it on a Saturday night (it IS rather long, at 2 hours and 12 minutes!). I'm not a person who likes to watch movies (or plays, or TV shows) over and over again; when I was a young teenager my girlfriends and I would usually sit through THREE consecutive showings of a film - that must have "cured" me. After 25 years I did remember the highlights (even though my MIL did chat quite a bit during the movie), but I was surprised that I hadn't realized what a great job John Barrymore did! I had always considered him a bombastic stage actor, playing to the back rows of the second balcony. He is so SUBTLE and SINISTER in this. For this viewing I saw Maytime on a pretty-good quality Samsung wall-hung TV, but I truly would love to see it on the big screen, in a theater. The May Day scenes especially deserve that. The lack of color doesn't bother me, though it does remind me of Irving Thalberg's too-early death.

1937's "Maytime" is one of the best musical/dramas in the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy collaboration. The plot line is relatively simple: Jeanette is an up-and-coming Parisian opera star who is originally from America. She agrees to marry her mentor and manager, played by John Barrymore, more out of respect for him than outright love. Love comes in the form of fellow-American Nelson Eddy. He's a talented singer in his own right, and the two meet by chance in a seedy café and strike up a friendship which soon turns to true romance. Alas, their affair is nipped in the bud due to Jeanette's prior commitment to Barrymore. Their marriage is a sour one, however, and when Jeanette and Johnny take a cruise to New York, she encounters Nelson once more. This time he's an opera star himself and the former lovers renew their previous spark during a rehearsal for a joint venture. Barrymore, watching from the wings, observes their interplay and is incensed. After confronting his wife about Mr. Eddy and learning the truth first-hand, he decides to kill the fellow. Poor Nelson ends up with a bullet through his heart and grieving Jeanette retires from the stage. Barrymore ends up on the gallows, but that scene is thankfully omitted. The story is told in flashback as Jeanette is now an old woman and closing in on her own death. While advising a young girl not to throw away her one chance on love, she relates her tragic life. The surprise ending of this film is one of the all-time greats and will bring tears to your eyes. It is so well-done and emotionally satisfying, that it makes up for anything else the film may lack.Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald were two of the most talented and charismatic figures ever to grace the film and recording industry. Their vocal and acting performances in this movie are among the best ever filmed. As for their real life romance, MacDonald once said that she must have had "rocks in her head" for never marrying Eddy. Obviously, she meant it. "Maytime" is highly recommended and absolutely one-of-a-kind film making.

There was a lot to like about this film---especially the acting of the three leads. However, I did not find it "cute"thatJeanette MacDonald failed to tell Nelson Eddy when she met him that she already was engaged. She also failed to tell John Barrymore, whom she "owed so much to", that she had even met Nelson Eddy.She essentially was the cause of the disaster that followed. I did not find the plot amusing--nor romantic. I guess that it was thought to be cute and romantic for the heroine to be shy and not the least be forward in dealing with men. I could never watch this film again as I disliked Miss MacDonald's character so much. The singing was fine--but not enough for me to want to see again.

This was by far Jeanette MacDonald's best film when teamed up with Nelson Eddy.An elderly woman, counseling young lovers, thinks back to her tragic love affair during the Napoleonic era. Both Nelson and Eddy are at their usual singing best and for a change, Eddy acts the part. He has often been criticized for poor acting in his other films with the wonderful MacDonald.John Barrymore was literally robbed of a best supporting Oscar nomination for his tyrannical role of a lover and husband of MacDonald. It was his inability to accept that MacDonald had found true love with Eddy that leads to tragedy.Too bad that this wonderful film wasn't in color since the set scenes of the Napoleonic era are beautifully realized.