Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Fifty-One and Fifty-Two: Making a Song and Dance of It

As I'm trying desperately to get through the 1930s as I realise I'm way behind schecdule I'm starting to group films together, the first four films are all musicals or related to musicals in a certain way.

First up another one starring frequent Maurice Chevalier contributer Jeanette MacDonald, who would later get her big break in San Francisco, here she plays the heroine but not exactly the title role in Naughty Marietta. MacDonald's character is in fact Princess Maria who, to escape a marriage to elderly statesman, swaps places with her uncle's servant Marietta and boards a boat bound for New Orleans. The boat is in fact full of women who are about to be wives to the men of New Orleans but en route the boat is captured by pirates before the pirates are challenged and defeated by a group of vigilantes lead by Nelson Eddy's Captain Warrington. To avoid being married off Maria/Marietta pretends to be a courtesan and is exiled and moved into a house looked over by Warrington. Soon Warrington and Marietta fall in love but things are complicated when her true identity is revealed. She is then taken back to her own palace and the wedding is to go ahead once again however Warrington dupes the nobility and is able to steal away with Maria. Naughty Marietta is an amiable enough film even though it does feel a bit dated in its portrayal of the sexes. Sure Maria is a pretty strong heroine in that she is able to fool most of the male characters, but at the same time she is defined by her relationships. Essentially the film is part screwball comedy part musical and the songs are always well performed if a little overly-theatrical at times, especially those involving the sailors and the pirates. Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald make a very believable couple, and have better chemistry than MacDonald ever had with Chevalier. But like with a lot of the musical entries this seems like an odd choice to be an Oscar contender, although it did win an award for its sound direction, it lost out on Best Picture to the far superior Mutiny on The Bounty.

One musical that didn't lose out on Best Picture was The Broadway Melody, which was in fact only the second film in history to win that accolade and the first sound film to do so. The story concerns The Mahoney Sisters Queenie and Harriet the latter of whom goes by Hank for most of the film. Hank also is accompanied by Eddie her romantic interest who soon falls for younger sister Queenie. Both sisters audition together but it is Queenie who the director is interested but she convinces him to take both of them. The rest of the film sees Eddie torn between his commitment to Hank and his burgeoning feelings for Queenie. Queenie meanwhile is courted by the well-off Jock who treats Queenie as just a plaything to pick up and use when he feels like it. Meanwhile during the show Hank feels that Queenie is holding her back and is jealous of the attention she is getting. Eventually Queenie and Eddie realise that they are in love and get married while Hank takes on one of the other dancers and tours The Mahoney Sisters act. For one of the very first talking pictures this was very interesting and was ultimately a combination of involving drama and traditional musical theatre. Some of the combinations feel a little jarring the transposition between some of the sisters more dramatic moments and the comedy lisping uncle doesn't really seem to make sense. But the Best Picture award certainly does with competition like The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and the patchy In Old Arizona, the all talking, all singing, all dancing Broadway Melody shed a light on the harsher elements of showbusiness.

As did one of the nominees for the Best Picture prize in 1934, that being 42nd Street. This film sees several different plot strands colliding. The first one involves Dorothy Brock, a star whose Sugar Daddy is financing a production of the show Pretty Lady, however Brock's real love is her old vaudeville partner Pat. The second story follows Julian Marsh, an extremly talented but harsh director whose manner has meant he has no friends, he is also dying and has lost a lot of money in the Wall Street Crash. The third and final strand looks at the fortunes of Peggy Sawyer a newcomer to Broadway who is cast in the show and after being teased initially by the other chorus girls soon becomes one of them. As the plot goes on Brock's Sugar Daddy learns of her infedility and goes to confront her and she ends up spraining her ankle. Peggy eventually steps into the breach and one of the film's best sequences sees Peggy being trained by Marsh and later comoforted by Dorothy. The last twenty minutes or so of the film is completely song and dance as three Busby Berkley numbers are played back to back among them the film's title track as well as Shuffle onto Buffalo and I'm Young and Healthy. The final scene sees Marsh leave the theatre with a smile on his face and slump outside on the pavement presumably to die. I have to say it took me a while to get into 42nd Street because of the many characters that we had to follow and some of the quick-talking banter, but once I did get into the action I really enjoyed it. This was mainly due to Warner Baxter's performance as Marsh, he really matured as an actor since his Oscar winning performance in In Old Arizona. Although here he, along with the rest of the cast, failed to get a single nomination and as well as Best Picture the film only recieved one other nomination, in Sound Recording, which is a big shame. I would certainly class 42nd Street as the Best Musical that I have watched to date. And I have to say as well there was a nice little supporting performance from Ginger Rogers which is different from anything I've seen her do with Fred Astaire.

Although to round things off we do have a film featuring Fred and Ginger although the topic matter is a little more racy in 1935 nominee The Gay Divorcee. In the film Fred bizzarely plays an American dancer who journeys to England with a friend where he briefly meets Ginger's character. She has come with her auntie to arrange a divorce from her boring husband. Her aunt brings her to see a slezy lawyer who just happens to be Fred's friend. They arrange for Ginger to meet up with an Italian gigolo so it seems like she is having an affair and she will be able to get the divorce. However Ginger mistakes Fred for the Italian and ends up going up to her room with him. When the other characters realise the mistake they decide to keep Fred and Ginger locked in the room together and as always they fall in love and dance a bit. As with all their films, Fred and Ginger do have a special kind of chemisty. While this film might not be as famous as Top Hat it still has one iconic sequence which sees the couple dancing to Night and Day on a balcony. This film also has more elements of screwball comedy in it, although some of the comedy does fall flat. The film actually did do prety well at that year's Oscar ceremony picking up an award for Original Song as well as several other nominations for its sound and score. However the coupling of Fred and Ginger in this particular film didn't match up to the coupling of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in that year's winning effort It Happened One Night.