The Firefly (1937)

Really Surprised!

Absolutely brilliant

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Spy-thrilla where Jeannette MacDonald must get napoleonic soldiers to reveal their secrets. Warren Williams (The Lone Wolf!) is the Major; Billy Gilbert who sneezed his way through films is the innkeeper. Douglass Dumbrille always played the bad guy, and here is the Marquis. Dance numbers, singing. It's Jeanette MacDonald, who always does operatic arias. Yawn. Pretty dated stuff. Intrigue. suspense. love triangles. It's a pretty dry period piece, which is never my first choice. Kind of a mata hari. Showing on Turner Classics. It's pretty well done, but moves pretty slowly. the songs keep bringing it to a screeching halt. I'd skip this one unless you're a fan of J. MacDonald. Directed by Robert Leonard... nominated twice, but never got the Oscar.

An operetta, with Alan Jones replacing the usual Nelson Eddy as Jeanette's costar, unfortunately, their only film starring together. Jones had a subsidiary role as the lead male in two partial operas with Jeanette in the previous "Rose Marie". Lots of ornate traditional European pageantry, beginning with a major festival, decreed by young King Ferdinand. The reason for this celebration isn't clearly specified. However, a good guess would be his recent coronation and/or the recent conquest of Portugal by a combined Spanish-French force. However, this happiness will be short-lived as Napoleon has plans to keep substantial troops in Spain, and replace the Spanish government with one of his own, headed by his brother Joseph.The title is taken from Rudolf Friml's 1912 operetta. However, the rather mundane plot of the original was discarded for a much more complicated and historically interesting one. The screenplay concentrates on the period just before and after the French takeover of Spain in 1809, then skips about 5 years, until the British and Portuguese forces are finally making headway in joining the various Spanish partisan groups toward liberating Spain.Most of Friml's original songs were retained. In addition, Friml was employed(now 25 years later) to compose additional songs: the most remembered being "The Donkey Serenade", sung by Jones, as he rides a horse alongside a stagecoach carrying Jeanette, trying to interest her in a romantic relationship. This scene is staged in the spectacular Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine: the main local for many a western, especially. A flute-playing boy, and guitar-playing stage driver aid Jones(Don Diego or Captain Andre))in his quest.Yes, as a few reviewers have complained, the plot is rather complicated, both from the viewpoint of the historical setting, and the political and emotional relationships between the characters played by Jeanette and Jones, and between Jeanette and Major de Rouchemont, as well as the Marquis de Melito. Jeanette plays Nina Maria: a famous singer and dancer, as well as Spanish spy, sometimes sent to dazzle high ranking French officers, and hopefully obtain militarily important info. Jones is sent by the French to keep an eye on her, thus they are on opposite sides of the political struggle, yet increasingly drawn to each other emotionally. This doesn't seem to make sense. If the French know/suspect that she is a spy, why do they allow her access to high ranking military officers??Jeanette looks and acts radiant throughout this production, often in various ornate costumes. As with most of her best-remembered films, it was shot in B&W, thus she appears to be a brunette. She often dances enticingly, along with her singing.. Jones makes an excellent singing companion for her, as well as occasionally soloing. Unfortunately, he wasn't very distinctive looking, nor tall, like Nelson Eddy: Jeanette's usual singing male costar. Thus, with a few exceptions, MGM relegated him to minor films. Just the year before, he had costarred in the popular film version of Kerns' "Showboat". However, he had disappointing film roles after the present one, thus moved to Universal in 1940, where he fared no better. Some people prefer him to Eddy, whom they complain was too wooden in his acting. I don't find Eddy inherently wooden: just playing his frequent stalwart characters as they should be, in the traditional acting style of these operettas. Returning to the political-military aspects of the film, we have the replacement of Spanish king Ferdinand with Napoleon's brother Joseph, after the French successfully defeat the Spanish armies. In the later portions of the film, the Duke of Wellington is the guiding light of the allies armies(British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces). After an initially success the year before, he was forced to retreat southward in the face of overwhelming French forces in the north. However, over the winter, the military situation drastically changed. While Napoleon's Grand Army was gradually decimated in the disastrous Russian campaign, the allies forces swelled with new recruits. Thus, Wellington now feels he has the manpower and cannon power to defeat the shrunken French armies in Spain. He has a plan to deceive the French army in the battlefield. Jeanette's Nina has a complicated role in this deception, and she again encounters Don Diego(Jones) in this operation. The allies defeat the French in the pivotal historical Battle of Vitoria, and the French soon are forced to leave Spain for good. With hostilities ended, and Nina's death sentence commuted, Nina and Don Diego feel they can finally resume their former romantic relationship, to end the film. But first, she must find Diego among the wounded in a makeshift hospital. The finale has them riding off into the sunset in a little horse-drawn wagon, singing their hearts out to reprises of "The Donkey Serenade", followed by "Giannina Mia", which were 2 of the previous 3 love songs sung by Diego to Nina.

The reviews here that say the movie is too long (or "too long for a 1930s musical") must be written by people from fleet street. The movie is as long as it needs to be for a nicely complex storyline, nicely told with lots and lots of beautiful music to entertain, and Jeanette even gets a lot of dancing and wonderful non-dance choreography through crowds of men that she tantalizes with her charm.The love scenes between MacDonald and Jones are funny, sweet, captivating, and the necessary betrayals are handled well and understandably from both sides.I loved every minute of this film and would not have wanted it shortened. All the songs are hummable and lively/romantic. MacDonald's intelligence and sense of humor underlie everything she does, as when she says to Jones after his beautifully sung love song, "Well, perhaps I shouldn't tell you this, but you know that part where you sing, 'My heart's your throne dear, my heart's your throne dear, There you shall rule alone...' with the music building just before the high note?""Yes?""I was wondering... but, no, perhaps I shouldn't tell you.""Tell me.""Well, I was wondering ... if you were going to make it."Or when Jones complains to her, "You're always saying goodbye," and she replies, "All right then, I won't say goodbye. I'll just ... go."Her comic timing is lovely.In fact, she has never been lovelier than in this movie, and the two of them together are just a lot of doggone fun and romance.

This is one of the most problematic and, in the end, unsuccessful 1930s musicals I have ever seen.It had everything going for it. The was very clearly a big-budget movie. MacDonald is really in very good form here, as is Jones. And there is wonderful chemistry between them. If this had been a better movie, it could, perhaps, have led to a whole string of good musicals with the two of them.But things get in the way of this being a success.The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes long, which is WAY to long for a 1930s musical, especially one with so little music. It starts out in a routine fashion, but there is FAR too much plot, and FAR too complicated - the politics in Spain at the beginning of the 19th century, which would have meant nothing to most 1930s Americans. That takes forever to work out, and who would care?* And then, in the end, where the story has become very dramatic and very complicated, suddenly we cut to Jones and MacDonald singing the two hit songs in a carriage, as if nothing else mattered. And it shouldn't have.The fact that Jones turns out to be a French counterspy makes everything much too serious.In short, the new plot that MGM came up with for this musical was its undoing.Given the few musical numbers here, a 90 minute fluff plot would have been fine. 130 minutes of serious drama overwhelms the music, makes us forget the good chemistry between MacDonald and Jones, and basically ruins what could have been an enjoyable romantic comedy with music.A shame.----------------------------* Rewatching it on TCM, I thought about the historical circumstances of the movie, to see if all this historical plot could have been meant to have any contemporary relevance. Briefly, the movie deals with Napoleon's scheming to put a puppet, his brother, on the throne of Spain, so that he can annex it, and then the English efforts to work with the Spanish people, a sort of resistance movement, to drive the French invaders out. The Spanish Civil War had started in 1936, the year before this movie was released, but it's hard to see much parallel there. Austria had yet to be annexed, though its president had been assassinated in 1934. In the end, I can't see how all this plot could have been intended to be seen as commentary on 1930s European politics. Besides, using the French to represent the Nazis or the Italian Fascists would have been a bizarre thing to do, as by 1937 they were one of the major anti-Fascist forces in Europe.