Powerful

People are voting emotionally.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Welcome to an Ernst Lubitsch musical comedy, full of wonderful examples of his celebrated "touch". Of course some of these touches were present in the screen story by Ernest Vajda and some may have been added in the additional dialogue by Vincent Lawrence. Our star, Jeanette MacDonald is charmingly photographed and is in fine voice. This was a Paramount picture and therefore the sound recording was top notch and not third-rate as it often was in Miss MacDonald's MGM pictures. Among the songs presented here, I particularly liked "Beyond the Blue Horizon", "Always in All Ways", "Give Me a Moment Please", "She'll Love Me and Like It", "Trimmin' the Women", and "A Job with a Future". As usual, Hans Dreier's gorgeous sets make a notable contribution to the movie's success. In all, "Monte Carlo" is a most pleasant, witty and diverting offering.

102: Monte Carlo (1930) - released 8/27/1930, viewed 6/23/08.KEVIN: I feel compelled to keep this brief, because I don't think this movie will stick with me. I didn't hate it, I just couldn't fall in love with it like I usually do with Ernst Lubitsch. There were plenty of enjoyable moments to keep me watching until the end, but I found the love story somewhat confusing. I blame this on Jack Buchanan as the male lead. His character is not only a liar, but a manipulator and stalker, and I must say there wasn't anything terribly charming about him. Buchanan played him just too creepy for me to root for him. Jeanette MacDonald was excellent, as usual, but her growing infatuation with this creep was what really confused me. I suspect when we've watched all of Lubitsch's other hits, this one will not rank so high.DOUG: Only Ernst Lubitsch could make such a breezy, likable comedy with such despicable characters. Jeanette MacDonald plays the flighty, naïve Countess Helene, who ditches her wedding to head off somewhere fun and ends up in Monte Carlo. Jack Buchanen plays Count Rudolph, a total creep who decides to court Helene by getting hired as her barber and stalking her at every turn. Claud Allister plays Prince Otto, the dim-witted older man Helene is set to marry. The proceedings are amusing in that fun Lubitsch kind of way; everyone's just on the edge of crazy throughout and are all the more enjoyable for it. The love story is rather dated though; I found Rudy to be an obsessive manipulative loon, scheming his way into her bedroom and saving locks of her hair. Because it's Lubitsch, it's all fluffy and lighthearted, but this is maybe my least favorite of his films so far.Last film viewed: The Divorcée (1930). Last film chronologically: The Big House (1930). Next film viewed: The Criminal Code (1930). Next film chronologically: Animal Crackers (1930).

I seem to be spending time with films like this. If you take away the story (excepting the last five minutes) the characters, the dialog and the songs, this is a very fine movie. It has such deft technique that it can support a tone of light humor regardless of the main attraction.This fellow was a master. Too bad he only made useless movies.There is what I call a narrative fold. The story is that a nobleman disguises himself as a servant to get close to a penniless noblewoman. They fall in love. He is shunned because he is a commoner — or perhaps because he has no money, it isn't clear. As all simple love stories do, this one must end with discovery and happiness. It occurs when the two at an opera where: guess what? The story is the same.In that last few minutes, the songs and words on the stage of the opera overlap with those on the stage of the movie. Its nice.The craft is enough for this.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

What is there about Lubitsch endings? In this 1930 film Monte Carlo we're in the Monte Carlo opera house watching two people as they watch the end of the operetta, Monsieur Beaucaire. In one box is the handsome and debonair Count Rudolph Falliere. In another box is the beautiful and sad Countess Helene Mara. Monsieur Beaucaire is all about a nobleman who pretends to be a hairdresser so he can be close to and woo a noblewoman. Lubitsch's Monte Carlo is all about…well, a nobleman who pretends to be a hairdresser so he can woo a noblewoman. The situation as it plays out for us observers is amusing, clever and sophisticated. We wind up thinking, because we know what's going on, that perhaps we're amusing, clever and sophisticated, too. It's a wonderful way to end the movie.How we got to this point is just about as amusing as the ending. Countess Helene Mara (Jeanette MacDonald) left her twit of a fiancé, Prince Otto Von Seibenheim (Claude Allister) at the alter. Otto is the product of far too much noble inbreeding. She hops a train with her maid and decides to go to Monte Carlo where she will, of course, make piles of money at the casino. Count Rudolph, a charming and rich fellow, falls for her as soon as he sees her. Without a proper introduction, of course, he decides he must take the place of her hairdresser in order to meet her. Before long, he has also taken the place of her lackey and her chauffeur…and speculates about the moment when he'll take the place of her maid. And pursuing Helene Mara is her fiancé, the dim-witted Prince Otto. There are some songs, some kisses, much nearly transparent lingerie worn fetchingly by Helene Mara, a number of cocked eyebrows by Rudolph (now Paul the hairdresser) and much light-hearted suggestiveness by Lubitsch. "Oh, oh, oh, oh... ohohohoo... that feels good!" says Helene Mara, while her maid listens behind a closed door. "... oh, oh!...that feels even better... you must have electricity in your hands! I've never felt like this before!" Lest we speculate with as much interest as the maid, Paul is merely massaging Helene Mara's scalp. Unlike Monsieur Beaucaire, this couple has a happy ending because, reasonably enough, that's what they want.Jeanette MacDonald gives a first-class performance that combines haughtiness, longing and sexuality. She looks great in her scanties. When she hides the key to her bedroom so that she won't be tempted to open it and let Paul enter, it involves three keys, each smaller than the last, two boxes and a pillow. MacDonald is just as delightful in the morning trying to figure out what she did so she can get the bedroom door unlocked.For modern American audiences, Jack Buchanan probably is something of an acquired taste. In Britain during the late Twenties and Thirties he was a huge star, particularly on the British stage. Critics called him the English Fred Astaire. The upper U accent, the careless confidence, the high-nose nasality, the slight hint of upper-class entitlement are a little dated today. Like many leading men of the Twenties and Thirties, before the style went out of fashion, he seemed to promise for duchesses and shop girls alike days of laughter and nights of exquisite passion, without dwelling too much on the mechanics of that passion. While his style is now dated, watch how he uses inflections, a quick expression, some physical business, how he laughs. Buchanan knew what he was doing and he was good at it. There are several things of his from the Thirties that you can see on YouTube. Nowadays he's better known as having played Jeffrey Cordova in The Bandwagon with Astaire.You'd have to have a severely ingrown toenail not to watch Monte Carlo with a smile, especially that ending.