By the time they made Naughty Marietta, MacDonald was already a big star. Eddy had a successful concert career, but hadn't made many films. MGM next planned to co-star Eddy in Rose-Marie with opera star Grace Moore, who still owed MGM a film. But Moore balked at co-starring with someone she considered an "unknown." In the meantime, Naughty Marietta was turning out to be a huge hit, so the studio was happy to replace Moore with MacDonald, and assigned W.S. Van Dyke, who helmed Naughty Marietta, to direct Rose-Marie.
Van Dyke was a speedy, economical director, who nevertheless could be counted on to deliver a classy and well-acted product. The studio made a decision that was revolutionary for the time: they would shoot the outdoor scenes on location, with the Lake Tahoe area of northern California standing in for Canada. Rose-Marie was one of the first musicals to use a naturalistic setting. A special train of seventeen box cars carted the equipment to the location. Movie crews built several 40-foot totem poles in state parkland at Emerald Bay for the Indian totem pole dance. With a cast of almost a thousand people (cast, extras and crew), feeding everyone was a problem, and the cuisine was less-than-gourmet box lunches. One day, for a treat, the crew set up a table for Van Dyke with a hot meal. The director asked if it was the same food that the crew was getting, and when he found out that it wasn't, he refused the meal and stood in line for box lunches like everyone else. The director was a dedicated prankster, and one of his more elaborate jokes involved rigging a fake explosion, for which the film's vocal coach believed himself responsible. Another time, while filming a scene in which MacDonald falls into a river, he sent the crew to lunch and left the star sitting in the water.
Rose-Marie was an important film in the careers of several newcomers. Cast as MacDonald's brother on the lam was James Stewart, in his third film. Van Dyke had noticed Stewart in his previous bit parts, and asked for him to play John Flower. This was the film that really started Stewart's career, and he always gave credit to Van Dyke for the boost. Also a standout in Rose-Marie was Allan Jones, the tenor who shares operatic arias with MacDonald in the film. He was newly-arrived at MGM, and had only been featured in musical sequences in films. Eddy, who had recently been in the same position as Jones, felt threatened by the other singer, and demanded that Jones' scenes be trimmed. But the following year, Jones would get his chance, when he co-starred with MacDonald in The Firefly (1937). Less auspicious was the part played in Rose-Marie by another newcomer, David Niven, cast as one of MacDonald's suitors. He receives a screen credit as "David Nivens," but in his autobiography Niven claims that in the finished film, his bit part had been reshot with another actor.
Rose-Marie was even bigger at the box office than Naughty Marietta. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy would make a total of eight films together, and sang 37 duets in them. But of all those films and all those romantic melodies, the one that is considered the quintessential MacDonald-Eddy number, for better or worse, is Indian Love Call.
,B> Producer: Hunt Stromberg
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Screenplay: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Alice Duer Miller, based on the operetta by Otto A. Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Rudolf Friml, Herbert Stothart
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Joseph C. Wright, Edwin B. Willis
Cinematography: William H. Daniels
Costume Design: Adrian
Editor: Blanche Sewell
Music: Rudolf Friml, Herbert Stothart, lyrics by Otto A. Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Gus Kahn
Cast: Jeanette MacDonald (Marie de Flor), Nelson Eddy (Sgt. Bruce), James Stewart (John Flower), Reginald Owen (Myerson), George Regas (Boniface), Robert Greig (Cafe Manager), Una O'Connor (Anna), Allan Jones (Tenor), Gilda Gray (Bella), David Nivens (Teddy).
BW-111m. Closed captioning.
by Margarita Landazuri
