February 1 movie: The Merry Widow. I've fallen so far behind in writing up movies that I'm having a hard time remembering the details. But I'll do my best.
I watched this because Jaime Weinman, whose culture blog I love, wrote about it the day before they showed it on TCM. I wonder if that was a coincidence or if he knew it was on TCM's schedule? Anyway he was mainly writing about the impact of the Hayes Code on the movie, which was made just before they started enforcing the code, but came out right after. Apparently the basic plot wasn't changed at all, but many trivial and seemingly pointless edits were made to accommodate the code. For example, "Danilo (Maurice Chevalier) says: 'Let's go upstairs, to the private dining room.' In the cut version, with a jump cut, this becomes: 'Let's go... to the private dining room.'" Since they do go to the private dining room, which features a bed rather than a dining table, it's hard to see why mentioning its location upstairs was the problem.
On the other hand, one of Weinman's comments mystified me when I read it: "Danilo greets each of the "Maxim girls" individually. One line is cut: when he asks one of them: 'Do you still cry when you love someone?'" Why on earth would this make a difference? But on seeing the film it made a little more sense. First because Maxime's is clearly a whorehouse, and second because his tone of voice when saying the line makes it sound like he's talking about the noises she makes during sex.
Anyway it was a good movie, very funny. There was one hilarious scene where the King catches Chevalier in the Queen's bedroom, and they all pretend to be having a pleasant conversation so the servants won't catch on. Except they don't actually talk about anything, just mumble gibberish at each other.
Post a comment