An exquisite musical, and one of the best examples of the celebrated "Lubitsch touch". Lubitsch really was the master of sophisticated romantic comedy. Jeanette MacDonald is the widow of the title, whom ladies man Maurice Chevalier woos twice and eventually wins. A lovely confection, with Lubitsch's fluid directing and elegiac camera movements really making it a swell piece of early sound cinema. I loved how he staged the musical numbers, even if I wasn't too fussed over MacDonald's operatic stylings. The film is structurally just about perfect, with the ending "answering" the beginning. Chevalier sings "Girls, Girls, Girls" in the opening scene, yet by the end we know he only wants one girl, the lovely Jeanette. He still has only one thing on his mind, but only one woman on his mind to do it with! Great fun!
Review of The Merry Widow
