The Merry Widow (DVD)

Jeanette MacDonald is Sonia, a bubbly widow who owns 52% of every cow and cow town in the tiny European country of Marshovia. When she relocates to glittery Paris, suave ladies' man Captain Danilo (Maurice Chevalier) sets out in hot pursuit. His mission: avert his homeland's financial ruin by bringing Sonia back on the wings of love. But hang on tight, Danilo. Love always flies a delirious course when legendary director Ernst Lubitsch, known for sophisticated wit and a style affectionately dubbed as "the Lubitsch touch" is at the helm. A frothy, high-spirited gem based on Franz Lehar's operetta, the Merry Widow set the standard for musicals to come. And it confirmed what MGM's top brass already knew: Jeanette MacDoanld was a major star. So enjoy the rapturous music, the sparkling dialogue and the swirling "Merry Widow Waltz." You'll have to look far and wide for a better comic operetta than this.

Starring: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Henry Armetta, Barbara Leonard, Akim Tamiroff, Lucien Prival, Luana Walters, Minna Gombell, Ruth Channing, Sterling Holloway, Donald Meek, Herman Bing, Sheila Mannors, Caryl Lincoln, Edna Waldron, Lona Andre, Patricia Farley, Shirley Chambers, Maria Troubetskoy, Eleanor Hunt, Jeanne Hart, Dorothy Wilson, Barbara Barondess, Dorothy Granger, Jill Dennett, Mary Jane Halsey, Peggy Watts, Dorothy Dehn, Connie Lamont, Charles Requa, George J. Lewis, Tyler Brooke, John Merkyl, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, Roger Gray, Christian J. Frank, Otto Fries, George Magrill, John Roach, Gino Corrado, Perry Ivins, Katherine Burke, George Baxter, Paul Ellis, Leonid Kinskey, Leonid Kinsky, Evelyn Selbie, Wedgwood Nowell, Richard Carle, Morgan Wallace, Frank Sheridan, Arthur "Pop" Byron, Claudia Coleman, Lee Tin, Nora Cecil, Tom Francis, Winter Hall, Matty Roubert, Ferdinand Munier, Dewey Robinson, Russell Powell, Billy Gilbert, Arthur Housman, Johnny "Skins" Miller, Hector Sarno, Jan Rubini, Albert Pollet, Rolfe Sedan, Jacques Lory, Allan Rogers

Director: Irving G. Thalberg

Rating: NR