Welcome to an Ernst Lubitsch musical comedy, full of wonderful examples of his celebrated "touch". Of course some of these touches were present in the screen story by Ernest Vajda and some may have been added in the additional dialogue by Vincent Lawrence. Our star, Jeanette MacDonald is charmingly photographed and is in fine voice. This was a Paramount picture and therefore the sound recording was top notch and not third-rate as it often was in Miss MacDonald's MGM pictures. Among the songs presented here, I particularly liked "Beyond the Blue Horizon", "Always in All Ways", "Give Me a Moment Please", "She'll Love Me and Like It", "Trimmin' the Women", and "A Job with a Future". As usual, Hans Dreier's gorgeous sets make a notable contribution to the movie's success. In all, "Monte Carlo" is a most pleasant, witty and diverting offering.

A follow up to "The Love Parade" was always going to be on the cards and plans were afoot for "Monte Carlo", a new operetta for Lubitsch, Chevalier and MacDonald but Chevalier, who had been making back to back movies since he arrived in Hollywood, decided to go on a concert tour so Jack Buchanan replaced him. Which was part of the problem - he just didn't have the boldness, the cheekiness or the art of engaging the audience as Chevalier did. He was a major star of London revues and had just starred with Irene Bordoni in "Paris" so movie goers knew who he was but he had a brittle, mincing manner that didn't really blend with Jeanette's erotic high class earthiness.It was lighter and far more static than "The Love Parade" - nothing much seemed to happen once Jack Buchanan made his appearance. The songs, as well, were nowhere near as memorable or tuneful as the previous film - that may have been Buchanan's fault as well. The plot was the old chestnut of mistaken identity, taken from a section of Booth Tarkington's "Monsieur Beaucaire" and made for one of the most scintillating scenes in the movie, at the very end when Helene goes to the Opera and finds it is mirroring her own life and she is mesmerized as the unfolding plot gives her clues as to the next step she ought to take. Unfortunately by the time of "Monte Carlo"'s release in September 1930, the public had reached satiation point as far as movie musicals were concerned.The film's start shows the legs of Helene (MacDonald) running to catch a train, also running from her wedding to foppish Duke Otto. It is her third escape and the fed up Duke decides to use caveman tactics to win her back - "She'll Love Me and Like It" he claims to a group of mocking guests.Helene has just made the train and is delighted to find it is bound for Monte Carlo. She imagines making her fortune and finally being free of her "silly ass" suitor who she is marrying solely for his wealth and as the speeding train picks up the beat Helene sings "Beyond the Blue Horizon" and is joined, in singing, by the peasants working in the fields. Once in Monte Carlo, for me, the film really slows down. Helene loses most of her money and is particularly annoyed at the persistency of an anonymous admirer who begs her (over the phone) to "Give Me a Moment Please" and she almost does. Rudy (Buchanan) becomes infatuated with her, changes places with her hairdresser Paul ("Trimmin' the Women") so he can be near her and succeeds in making himself indispensable to her (another song "Whatever It is - It's Grand"). Of course he is really a Count and also convinces her he is lucky at the gaming tables and proceeds to "win" her enough money so she won't feel obliged to marry the boring Duke. No wonder she goes to the Opera confused, even after the beautiful duet "Always in All Ways". As she is still trying to come to grips with "Monsieur Beaucaire" Rudy declares "I like happy endings" and fade out to another train with Helene and Rudy looking forward to their beautiful day together.Most critics eager for another Lubitsch film raved but audiences didn't and Lillian Roth's sauciness was missed (Zasu Pitts was not the same). A couple of critics predicted stardom for Jeanette but despite her being her usual splendid self, Paramount dropped her before "Monte Carlo" opened.

This is another early excellent example of Ernest Lubish musical talkie. It isn't overacted or staged .Jeannette plays a countess who runs way with her maid on a train to escape the umpteenth time to marry an pipsqueak an a count. She decides to go to Monte Carlo with her last franks in hope to gamble to make a lot of money so she can be independent. A gambling opportunist, played by a very young Jack Buchnanan, with his friend sees her ,befor she goes to the gambling house being superstitious rubbing a mans back for good luck and paying him for it.He follows her and ask her if she needs good luck by rubbing his hair.She ignores him. But as soon as they get close he continues to reject him but rubs his hair,. He goes in to observes that she's winning. All of a sudden she loses and he feels real bad about it.Trys to contact her to try to make up for it she rejects him. So when he and his friend meets her beautician he gets him to allow himself to play her beautician to get into her room. He almost makes a mess trying to fix her hair. She ends up hiring him as her chauffeur and cook. she goes to the bank to found out she's broke.He fiancés is trying to look for her and discovers he went Montiecarlo. He finds her and she felt that she had no choice but to marry him for his money which he finds novel. Earlier she has to fire him but keeps him on when she goes back with fiancé.He admits to her partially that he's a gambler and agrees' to help her win money going out together pretending he's not her beautician.But they end up falling in love and not gambling. Her maid play by Zazu Pitts suggest she dump him. She does regretfully. for weeks looks for him until she calls the right barber shop when he's getting a shave . He answer's the phone and rejects her . Later on shows up at her place only to professionally fix her hair but she want him to go to the opera with her. He turns her down. As she goes to the operas late, in which her pipsqueak of a fiancé is already at the theater. Paramount adapted from their Rudolph Valentino silent Monseur Vocare as a fictitious operetta at the Monticarlo opera house. Thats when she discovers that he's there and that he is count. Another standard was written for the screen Beyond the blue Horizon. the song title was used later on in another movie staring Dorothy Lamour but it was a different story.

The first twenty minutes of Monte Carlo is so enjoyable and promising, you might think you're watching one of Ernst Lubitsch's best musical comedies. The film kicks off with a highly amusing sequence at the palace of a silly aristocrat, where a wedding ceremony goes disastrously awry. First, the well-wishers are doused by a sudden rainfall (as we see a banner proclaiming "Happy is the Bride the Sun Shines On"), and consequently the members of the processional are forced to switch from a stately march to a mad scramble into the church. Then the groom is informed that his intended bride has fled, and we soon learn that this is the third time she has done so. But the groom's father insists that the wedding gifts will not be returned, and sends his son out to calm the guests. The groom, Otto, is played by Claude Allister, a bizarre-looking character actor who specialized in playing silly ass Englishmen. Otto treats the crowd to a song assuring them that he'll retrieve his bride and that "She'll Love Me and Like It!" This number is hilarious, and whets our appetites for more.Next we meet the runaway bride herself, Countess Helene (Jeanette MacDonald), who, with her maid (ZaSu Pitts) has hopped a train without even bothering to find out where it's going -- nor did she take the time, when fleeing, to dress in anything beyond her slip and a light jacket. Once in her compartment she promptly doffs the jacket. (Can you say "Pre-Code"?) After an amusing exchange with a train conductor played by former Sennett comedian Billy Bevan, Jeanette sets her course for Monte Carlo and then sits back in her compartment, gazes happily out the window, and sings the film's most famous song, "Beyond the Blue Horizon." This sequence is renowned among film historians as one of the best musical numbers of the early talkie era, one that transcended the stage-bound conventions holding back other filmmakers. Here Lubitsch artfully combines a montage of traveling shots, the rhythmic sounds of the train, the swelling strains of the orchestra and MacDonald's voice to create a genuinely exhilarating number.Unfortunately, once our Countess reaches Monte Carlo it marks the point where the movie itself has peaked. From here on, it steadily loses momentum and never again regains the propulsive cheer of those opening moments. I'm not entirely sure why the famed Lubitsch Touch faltered in this case, but in my opinion the biggest single error was the casting of Jack Buchanan in the male lead. Buchanan was a popular stage star in London, but he didn't succeed as a star in Hollywood, and his performance in this film demonstrates why. To put it bluntly, the man is an oddball: spindly, toothy, nasal-voiced and entirely too pleased with himself to score a hit as an appealing leading man. I think Buchanan must have been one of those performers like George M. Cohan or Fanny Brice whose stage magnetism didn't translate into movie stardom, or at least, not in this sort of role. He's ideal as the pompous stage director in The Band Wagon (1953), but that's an older, mellower Jack Buchanan in a funny character turn. Here, he's pretty hard to take, and none of his songs are as memorable or as cleverly staged as Jeanette's "Beyond the Blue Horizon." (And strangely, although he was celebrated in England for his dancing, he has no dance numbers at all.) Instead, Buchanan is given the film's most campy, embarrassing song, a paean to barbering called "Trimmin' the Women," a number that looks like it escaped from the Celluloid Closet. Things get worse later on when the plot calls for Buchanan to turn macho, and he gruffly orders Jeanette around, which is like watching Franklin Pangborn portray a drill sergeant.With no Maurice Chevalier to play opposite (and Nelson Eddy still waiting in the wings), Jeanette MacDonald is pretty much left to her own devices. She's charming, but can't carry the picture by herself. Still, even if she'd played opposite a different leading man, Monte Carlo's verbal humor falls short in the later scenes. Lubitsch boosts the comedy quotient with some characteristic visual gags, bits involving missing boudoir keys and a church clock with mechanical musicians, and these moments help, but too many punch-lines fail to land, and too many scenes conclude on anti-climactic notes. Even ZaSu Pitts has to strain for laughs. I feel the director showed more assurance in this film's predecessor, his first talkie The Love Parade, which was boosted by Chevalier's high energy performance and some terrific supporting comics.Fans of early musicals will want to catch the first two numbers here, but once you've arrived beyond that blue horizon and reached Monte Carlo, you may want to bail. After the first twenty minutes or so this film will most likely be of interest primarily to Lubitsch buffs and Jeanette MacDonald fans.