Although the stage version's original plot was changed and most of its songs were omitted, the 1936 film was a great success and became perhaps MacDonald's and Eddy's best-known film. Their duet "Indian Love Call" was a major hit and remained a signature song throughout their careers.[2]
Plot
Marie de Flor is a Canadian soprano performing in Roméo et Juliette in Montreal with the premier of Quebec in the audience. Inviting the premier and his entourage to dinner after the performance, she learns from a man named Boniface that her brother Jack, supposedly in prison for armed robbery, was wounded as he escaped from prison and has killed a Mountie in the process. She departs for the Canadian wilderness with Boniface, hoping to help Jack. At the same time, Sergeant Bruce of the Mounties reports to headquarters and receives his latest mission: he must find Jack Flower, believed to be hiding near Lake Chibougam.
Marie and Boniface reach an outpost near Lake Chibougam, where Boniface disappears with Marie's money. Marie falls in with Sergeant Bruce, but Marie cannot tell him the truth for fear of compromising Jack. Marie sings at a local cafe to earn some money but fails to attract any tips.
Bruce insists that Marie report Boniface's theft, but she cannot admit her real identity, calling herself Rose. However, Bruce has recognized her via her voice. They travel together to an Indian ceremony that night. Bruce, despite his strong sense of duty, proves to be a womanizer, and they sing together. Marie finds Boniface and they leave together. However, Bruce has discovered that she is really Jack's sister and pursues her, knowing that she will lead him to Jack.
Boniface and Marie travel on horseback to Hayman's Landing, where Jack is hiding. Sergeant Bruce, who has been following her, rescues her from drowning as they cross a deep river, and Boniface flees to the forest.
Marie haughtily refuses the Sergeant's help but realizes that she will not reach Jack without his help. She and the sergeant travel together for the next three days before she leaves him with a new guide.
Marie finds Jack being nursed by Boniface's mother and tries to persuade him to reform. She gives him money to escape and begin a new life, but Bruce appears and arrests Jack. Marie pleads with the sergeant to release Jack, but he refuses.
No more is heard of Jack, but Marie, although unwell, returns to opera performance. She performs the title role in the opera Tosca. She imagines that she hears "Indian Love Call" throughout the opera and collapses on the stage just before the final curtain. She retires to a mountain lodge and refuses to sing for six months. Her manager Myerson visits and expresses his disappointment that she will not sing again. After he leaves, she begins singing "Indian Love Call". Myerson urges Sergeant Bruce, who has been waiting in the foyer, to join her, and they sing together.
An extra in the film named Robert Barr Miller, who appears in the credits under his real name, was sought by authorities for robbery and murder in northern California.[3]
Act III of Tosca, from Tosca's entrance (music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica)
"Indian Love Call (Reprise)"
Production
While footage of the Mounties in boot camp was filmed in Canada, location filming with the lead actors occurred at Lake Tahoe. The film was originally slated to be in color, but makeup man Fred Phillips explained that when it was decided to film in black and white, the studio ordered him to change Eddy's makeup in a negative fashion. Phillips stated that orders were sent by Louis B. Mayer, who was angry at Eddy for his personal involvement in MacDonald's life.[4]
Reception
Rose Marie grossed a worldwide total of $3,515,000 ($1,695,000 in the US & Canada, and $1,820,000 internationally). It made a profit of $820,000.[1]
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called Rose Marie "[a]s blithely melodious and rich in scenic beauty as any picture that has come from Hollywood" and wrote: "... Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy sing an operetta's love songs and we care not who may write its book. In splendid voice, whether singing solo or in duet, they prove to be fully as delightful a combination here as they were in the film of Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, which was so welcome a contribution to last year's film calendar."[5]
^ abcTurk, Edward Baron "Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald" (University of California Press, 1998)
^Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank. Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2004. ISBN1-57912-390-2
^Associated Press, Hunted Bandit Busy in Movie, Spokesman-Review, Spokane Washington, September 16, 1936, page 9
