The Big Idea Behind THE MERRY WIDOW

The Merry Widow was one of the 30 operettas composed by Austrian Franz Lehar. It was a hit first in Vienna in 1905, then traveled to Broadway in 1907, where it played 416 performances. It was such a big hit in the United States that it led to the import of other European operettas and even inspired a line of promotional tie-ins: Merry Widow hats, gowns, cigarettes and corsets. The name became iconic, with "Merry Widow" used ever after to describe a particular type of corset.

The operetta was filmed twice during the silent era, first as a two-reeler in 1912, starring Wallace Reid and Alma Rubens. In 1925, director Erich von Stroheim treated it as a discourse on decadence, freely adapting the original libretto to create one of MGM's biggest early hits. John Gilbert starred as Prince Danilo, with Mae Murray in the title role. Eagle-eyed film fans can spot Clark Gable as an extra.

MGM first considered re-making The Merry Widow in 1930, only to learn that most of the plot elements they hoped to use in the new version had been added by von Stroheim, who had maintained the rights to them. It took three years for lawyers to straighten out the rights issues.

When MGM first considered making the film, opera singers Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett were announced as the stars. Then publicity suggested the studio would borrow Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and director Ernst Lubitsch from Paramount. It would take four years, however, to put that package together.

Chevalier and MacDonald had made four films together by the time MGM lured her away from Paramount in 1932. At her previous studio, she had never gotten the star treatment that MGM promised her. She did well with her first film there, The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) and was ready for more ambitious assignments. In 1933, Thalberg managed to steal Chevalier. Although he had been one of the biggest stars in the movies in the early '30s, Chevalier was facing a box-office decline that he attributed to his typecasting as a bon vivant song and dance man. MGM production chief Irving G. Thalberg promised him the chance to expand his range.

Chevalier and MacDonald had not gotten along together on their earlier films. She considered him a first-class bottom-pincher, while he thought her a prude. He also resented the grande dame persona she assumed on the set and her condescending air. When he signed with MGM, he made Thalberg promise that he would not have to work with her again.

With Chevalier finally under contract, Thalberg announced that his first MGM film would be a new version of The Merry Widow. The role was similar to those Chevalier had been playing, but when Thalberg arranged to borrow Lubitsch from Paramount and promised the star more diverse roles afterwards, Chevalier agreed.

Chevalier's personal choice to co-star with him was Moore. Her earlier films at MGM, New Moon and A Lady's Morals (both 1930), had not performed well at the box office. In addition, she was having trouble keeping her weight below the 135 pounds dictated by her contract. Lubitsch didn't care for her either, and even though she offered to play the role for free, Thalberg decided to look elsewhere.

Meanwhile, MacDonald's next scheduled film, I Married an Angel (1942), was put on hold because of problematic content in the screenplay that would have trouble getting past the censors. MGM would end up selling the rights to Broadway where Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, who had been working on the score for them, turned it into a hit. MacDonald would finally film the project, with perennial co-star Nelson Eddy, in 1942, when it flopped at the box office.

Lubitsch had discovered MacDonald in a musical production in Chicago and recommended her to executives at Paramount Pictures for the female lead in his first film with Chevalier, The Love Parade (1929). He kidded her relentlessly on the set to keep her from getting too haughty.

With Lubitsch's full support behind MacDonald, Thalberg finally decided to cast the actress rather than a non-singing star like Joan Crawford, who was briefly considered (others mentioned for the role were stage star Peggy Wood and silent screen siren Gloria Swanson). Chevalier complained to gossip columnist Louella Parsons, triggering a war of words between himself and Lubitsch. The director told Parsons, "I can only think when he was so determined not to have Jeanette MacDonald that he was afraid of her great popularity abroad...if MGM intends to keep Lehar's music and really make a musical play, there should be someone who can sing" (quoted in Edward Behr, The Good Frenchman: The True Story of the Life and Times of Chevalier). In the face of such a public thrashing from his director, Chevalier backed down and agreed to make the film with MacDonald. Legally, he couldn't sue, as Thalberg's promise about the casting only appeared in an informal letter, not his contract.

Lehar himself contributed new music to the film and new lyrics were written by Lorenz Hart and Gus Kahn. Because MGM had hired Hart and composer Richard Rodgers as a team, they had to give Rodgers a credit as well, although he never worked on the film.

The screenplay was written by Ernest Vajda, who had written The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) for Lubitsch and Chevalier, and one of Lubitsch's favorite writers, Samson Raphaelson, who worked on such classics as Trouble in Paradise (1932) and The Shop Around the Corner (1940).