The Silver Screen Oasis

[u][color=#0000BF]rohanaka[/color][/u] wrote:...and I hope some day when she is older and sits down to watch this movie again, she'll remember that her grandma and mom once took her out to see it on the big screen way back when... and she'll smile.

Okay Ro-Ro...now you've made me 'wooshy-eyed.' What a beautiful account!

I always remember a visit to Hollywood with the Jeanette MacDonald International FanClub.
A viewing of NEW MOON was looked forward to, but the County Museum showed the 1930 version!
I think I may have been the only one there who didn't mind , because I had just discovered Grace Moore in ONE NIGHT OF LOVE and was happy to see another of her films.
The 1930 version was vey different from Jeanette and Nelson's film but I loved hearing Grace and Laurence Tibbett do "Wanting You".

LOVELY TO LOOK AT is very good, but I used to get annoyed because ROBERTA (of which it was a remake) disappeared and I feared I would never catch up with it. Fortunately , ROBERTA did become available.

JEANETTE MACDONALD: I always wished Jeanette had done more modern dress films. Aside from a few like SWEETHEARTS, it was always costume.
I think she could have been perfect in romantic comedy - or drama - or more musicals where she could show her dancing expertise.
Her singing of the title song, to win the prize for Blackie, in SAN FRANCISCO is wonderful.
And I love practically every song in SMILING THROUGH.

I was really surprised by jeanette dancing, I think it was in The Firefly. She was good! My favorites are Naughty Marietta and Rose Marie.

I was also surprised by how good Smilin Through was, especially Gene Raymond's performance. I like him very much, every time I see him, he does something unexpected.

Vienna wrote:JEANETTE MACDONALD: I always wished Jeanette had done more modern dress films. Aside from a few like SWEETHEARTS, it was always costume.
I think she could have been perfect in romantic comedy - or drama - or more musicals where she could show her dancing expertise.
Her singing of the title song, to win the prize for Blackie, in SAN FRANCISCO is wonderful.
And I love practically every song in SMILING THROUGH.

I consider Jeanette MacDonald one the best actresses in a musical and I wished she done more to showcase her dancing skills and done more movies. It is a travesty that she did not do that. I love her style and grace ... I love/adore her in SAN FRANCISCO and SMILING THROUGH.

There's a fun discussion of SAN FRANCISCO on another thread. Is it the Tracy tribute?

I think so.

Yes, we discussed San Francisco in the Tracy thread.

I wish I could get into Jeanette MacDonald, I think Vienna hit it on the head, I like her when she plays more modern roles, like the films with Chevalier, even though two of them are costume dramas. In San Francisco I really didn't like her, she jarred to me. I like her when she's showing some naughtiness.

She's so much better when she's naughty, isn't she? I think her later MGM persona was a little rigid, kind of an Iron Butterfly thing.

I think that she is at her "naughtiest" best in "One Hour With You" (1932).

I'd have to agree that is her most appealing movie.

feaito wrote:I think that she is at her "naughtiest" best in "One Hour With You" (1932).

That's so true feaito!

Mayer rated her so highly and I think prized the purity that many of her movie roles exemplified, no doubt they made the most money but she was far better laced with naughtiness. I alway got the impression that she was the only woman who could curtail Maurice Chevalier's wandering eye.

Yes but not because she was straightlaced, because she was gorgeous, smarter and could be naughtier than any other woman. Once she was unbridled of her inhibitions, she was more woman than he could handle - she could take the place of hundreds of women because she was on fire, if you know what I mean.

I think it's sad sort of to see her screen persona reduced as it was. It was limiting.