The Girl of the Golden West (1938)

MGM, 1938
Starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Buddy Ebsen, and Walter Pidgeon
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Music by Sigmund Romberg and others; Lyrics by Gus Kahn and others

MacDonald and Eddy were two of MGM's biggest stars after the success of their 1937 vehicle Maytime, but a musical western based after an opera is probably the last thing anyone expected them to do as their next big film. How does the tale of a bandit who falls in love with a saloon-owning tomboy come off nowadays? Let's head to Cloudy, a rough-and-ready California boom town, and find out...

The Story: Mary, better known as "the Girl" (MacDonald), is the owner of the Polka Saloon in Cloudy. She keeps the gold the men bring in from the mountains at her place and turns it over to the stagecoaches when they arrive. All of the men in town adore her and think of her as one of their own, and she has two suitors in Sheriff Jack Rance (Pidgeon) and shy blacksmith Alabama (Ebsen). On a trip to Monterrey, Mary's stagecoach is robbed by Ramerez (Eddy), a notorious local bandit. He's so enamored by her spunk and beauty, he follows her to town, where he poses as a lieutenant at a big festival in town just to get to know her better.

He eventually turns up in Cloudy, intending to rob the gold at the Polka...but can't go through with it when he discovers Mary's the owner. His men aren't terribly happy about that, and his half-breed girlfriend Nina (Priscilla Lawson) is even less thrilled. She tells the Sheriff the truth, and he tells Mary when she just invited Ramerez to her cabin. The bandit is hurt while trying to escape and winds up back at her place. Determined to keep him from the sheriff's grasp, she ends up playing a hand of poker with Rance, with the bandit and her hand in marriage on the line.

The Song and Dance: Unusually action-packed for the MacDonald/Eddy movies, with shootouts, bandits, and a genuinely tense confrontation between MacDonald and Pidgeon during that poker game. Ebsen as sweet Alabama and H.B Warner as Mary's padre friend in Monterrey add much-needed authenticity to this romantic adventure melodrama.

Favorite Number: MacDonald gets to sing a lovely version of "Lieberstraum" with town drunk The Professor (Brandon Tynan) on the newly-purchased piano at the saloon that's one of her better solo numbers. Eddy joins her for two big chorus numbers in the fiesta segment, "Senorita" and "Mariachi." The latter turns into the film's sole large-scale dance routine, with swirling dancers and some huge sets. Ebsen comments on how "civilization" has changed California in the brief but funny "The West Ain't Wild Anymore."

Trivia: This started out as a hit play by David Belasco in 1905. The play became an opera, La fanciulla del west, in 1910. It was filmed three times before, twice as a silent.

What I Don't Like: Philadelphia natives MacDonald and Eddy are too urban to be believable in a western setting. Eddy did better in his later solo western Let Freedom Ring; his idea of a Mexican accent is ridiculous. Womanly MacDonald is no tomboy, either. I have no idea why they couldn't have retained at least a little of the original opera score, as most of Romberg and Kahn's music is rather dull.

The Big Finale: Ok if you're a fan of MacDonald, Eddy, or the opera; otherwise, nothing you need to go out of your way to see.

Home Media: Easy to find on streaming and on DVD from the Warner Archives.

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