12 thoughts on “TBT: The Merry Widow (1934)

  1. The movie plays fast and loose with the plot of the original operetta, right down to renaming Hannah as Sonia and cutting out huge swaths of the story. Take a look at the Wikipedia entry to get a better idea of the story, which is even juicier than that of the film.

    1. The silent version, with Mae Murray and John Gilbert, is an extravagant von Stroheim production–grand costumes and settings–and not bad .I rather like Murray, except in those close-ups where she smiles and lifts her upper lip to show her teeth, as was trendy. Have never understood the attraction of this rodentlike pose.

      http://silentfilm.org/archive/the-merry-widow

  2. I may not have seen that many ruffles in my life (not all at once, anyway), but I can’t say I regret it… And I just made myself a Merry Widow hat! Did you know that at the time, those giganormous confection (mine is about 1 meter in diameter, LOL) influenced the shape of automobiles?

  3. The depiction of Maxim’s as a brothel is not too far off. The 19th C. definition of a French restaurant usually meant that the ground floor was respectable. (You could take your wife). The second floor would have small, intimate dining rooms that featured a chase lounge, a lockable door, and a buzzer to summon the waiter. (You could bring someone else’s wife). And the third floor on up would be an outright brothel. This was true in San Francisco as well. The Poodle Dog, (Poulet d’Or), was probably the most famous. After the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, seismic retrofitting was being done on Jack’s, a French restaurant on Sacramento Street dating back to 1863. In the basement construction workers discovered stacks of old mattresses.

  4. “How does it all end?”

    He’s shot by a firing squad while J-Mac, drenched in black satin ruffles, trills from a balcony?

  5. Turner Classic Movies is showing a tribute to Adrian’s films on Friday, September 14, 2018, during the daylight hours. Most of the films are contemporary (1930s), but the late afternoon has The Great Ziegfeld (1936) covering the 1890s to the 1930s, and The Women (1939), with its all female cast and mid-movie fashion show. Adrian had to design 200 gowns for The Women!

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