Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:56, 5 November 2020

Monte Carlo
theatrical poster
Directed by	Ernst Lubitsch
Written by	Ernest Vajda Hans Müller-Einigen Booth Tarkington Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland
Produced by	Ernst Lubitsch
Starring	Jack Buchanan Jeanette MacDonald Claud Allister
Cinematography	Victor Milner
Edited by	Merrill G. White
Music by	W. Franke Harling
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 27, 1930 (1930-08-27)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Monte Carlo is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It stars Jeanette MacDonald as Countess Helene Mara. The film is notable for the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon", which was written for the film and was performed by Jeanette MacDonald. The film was also hailed by critics as a masterpiece of the newly emerging musical genre. The screenplay was based on the Booth Tarkington novel Monsieur Beaucaire.

Plot

Countess Helene Mara is engaged to be married to Prince Otto Von Liebenheim but leaves him at the altar. She flees on a train to Monte Carlo and checks into a hotel. When she arrives at the casino a count named Rudolph Falliere takes a liking to her and poses as a hairdresser whom she hires and falls in love with but could not marry if he is a commoner. Her fiancé later arrives and takes her to an opera and she sees Rudolph there in one of the expensive seats indicating he is too wealthy to be a hairdresser. When he reveals to her that he is a count, she realises she can marry him.

Cast

• Jack Buchanan as Count Rudolph Falliere / Rudy
• Jeanette MacDonald as Countess Helene Mara
• Claud Allister as Prince Otto Von Liebenheim
• ZaSu Pitts as Bertha
• Tyler Brooke as Armand
• John Roche as Paul
• Lionel Belmore as Duke Gustav Von Liebenheim
• Albert Conti as Prince Otto's Companion
• Helen Garden as Lady Mary in Stage Opera
• Donald Novis as Monsieur Beaucaire in Stage Opera
• Erik Bey as Lord Windorset
• David Percy as Herald

Music

The songs in the film were written by Richard Whiting and W. Franke Harling, with uncredited music by Karl Hajos, Herman Hand, Sigmund Krumgold, and John Leipold. The best-known song in the film is "Beyond the Blue Horizon" by Richard A. Whiting and W. Franke Harling with lyrics by Leo Robin. The song became an immediate hit record for Jeanette MacDonald on the film's release and again in the 1970s when it was covered by Lou Christie.

Other songs in the film are:

• "Give Me A Moment Please"
• "Always in All Ways"
• "She'll Love Me and Like It"
• "Days of Days"
• "Trimmin' the Women"
• "Whatever It Is, It's Grand"

References

1. Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-00765-3 page 13

External links

• Monte Carlo at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Monte Carlo at Rotten Tomatoes
• Monte Carlo at the TCM Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Michael Koresky

This article related to an American film of the 1930s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1930 films
• 1930 musical comedy films
• 1930 romantic comedy films
• American black-and-white films
• Films directed by Ernst Lubitsch
• American films
• English-language films
• Paramount Pictures films
• Films based on works by Booth Tarkington
• Films set in Monaco
• Films made before the MPAA Production Code
• American musical comedy films
• American romantic comedy films
• 1930 comedy films
• 1930s American film stubs