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Rating: Based on the famous early 1900s operetta of the same name by Franz Lehár.
The Merry Widow is a 1934 film by Ernst Lubitsch. It is the second film adaptation of the operetta. Before him, in 1925, Stroheim, the director and star of Foolish Wives, (cfr: https://www.debaser.it/erich-von-stroheim/femmine-folli/recensione) made a more rigorous version.
Lubitsch, on the other hand, adapted the operetta to his most peculiar characteristics. Lubitsch was an undisputed master of cinematic comedy of all time.
If I were to say he was the greatest, yes, greater even than Billy Wilder, I wouldn't be saying anything shocking or revealing, and in fact, I say it. He was the greatest of them all!
As I already mentioned in a comment in the review (cfr: https://www.debaser.it/ernst-lubitsch/vogliamo-vivere/recensione) by ilfreddo of the masterpiece To be or not to be (Vogliamo vivere! is the Italian title), Lubitsch was fundamental for the genre; he laid the foundations, created a style (which Billy Wilder will call “Lubitsch touch”) unmistakable, copied and recopied yet inimitable.
Of course, only by watching one of his films can you understand the meaning of these words... for example, seeing a king, on the brink of ruin, moving house and personally packing his crown with newspaper...
1885.
In the imaginary small state of Morshovia, somewhere in the Balkans, lives a widow (Sonia played by Jeanette MacDonald) wealthy, very wealthy.
One day the widow, still young, beautiful, and highly sought after, tired of living in mourning, pain, and distress, decides to go to Paris...
Tragedy! If she were to marry a foreigner, it would mean bankruptcy for Morshovia!
It is decided to send a suitor to Paris; the choice falls on Count Danilo (Maurice Chevalier), a formidable womanizer, lover, and heartbreaker who had already tried with the widow without even knowing what she looked like since she was in mourning and had her face covered with a black veil.
After this wonderful prologue, the film begins...
The mission of the count and the encounter between the two will not, however, go according to the predetermined plans...
The film unfolds across three genres: comedy, musical, love story.
The three genres are perfectly balanced and blended, and it is also in this balance, in this skillful use of ingredients, that we can glimpse the greatness of this director, who shows that making a film is no joke.
And so not only hilarious scenes, sharp-tongued lines, inventions, devices, and details (the scene of the king's telegram to his official is one for the ages) that elevate the brilliant comedy to a work of art but also operetta songs, dances, waltzes, and the can-can, sequences to watch and admire even if they are not your style. And then there's the love story, precisely, that when a man truly loves a woman... a hundred women no longer matter.
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