Naughty Marietta

Nelson Eddy made his full-fledged debut in this, the first of eight films in which he costarred with Jeanette MacDonald. Rita Johnson Young and Victor Herbert's hoary operetta was dusted off, given a new screenplay, new lyrics by Gus Kahn, and the result was a neatly paced (by "One-Take" Woodie Van Dyke) Best Picture nominee that only slightly belies its stage origins. Fleeing an arranged marriage to a Spanish grandee (Walter Kingsford), French princess Marie de Namours de la Bonfain (MacDonald) switches places with her maid and boards a ship bound for Louisana, where its female passengers are to become colonial brides. En route the ship is attacked by pirates, but...