This is an excellent chance to experience the duo singing and acting of Jeanette Macdonald and Nelson Eddy without the occasional included opera performance, as in "Maytime " and "Rose Marie". In fact, along with the very similar "Naughty Marietta", it's clearly my favorite of the 4 'classic' JM & NE films I have recently seen, both in terms of the screenplay and the Sigmund Romberg-composed songs. The main problem is that Jeanette plays a spoiled unsympathetic character, unlikely for Eddy's character to fall in love with, save for her singing.
New Moon is both the name of the ship that the bondsmen capture, a symbol for the new society Eddy establishes for his utopian colony, and a symbol for his romantic relationship with Jeanette's character. As several reviewers have pointed out, the screenplay, which is relatively faithful to the original play, bears many striking similarities to the earlier JM & NE film "Naughty Marietta". In that film, the two escape the encumbering Old World aristocracy by fleeing into the American wilderness, from New Orleans. In this film, they find a small uncharted(unlikely) Caribbean island where Eddy's character establishes a utopian society, based on the principles of the French Revolution, then taking place. But, the screenplay also bears some striking resemblances to the earlier Warner film "Captain Blood", featuring another famous film romantic couple; Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. In both films, the male lead is an aristocratic political rebel, who spends a period as the slave or indentured servant of the female lead, in the Caribbean, then later captures a ship, becomes a pirate leader, and captures a ship the female lead is on. In both films, the male lead ends the film as the political leader of a Caribbean Island, with the female lead, who has vacillated in her loyalty to him, as his wife or wife-apparent. The screenplay also has the commonality with the prior Jeanette & Allan Jones -starring operetta "The Firefly" of Jeanette and the male star being on opposite sides of a historical struggle to overthrow an unpopular European regime, and the announcement at the end, that a French king or dictator has been deposed: from Spain, in the case of "The Firefly".
Very conveniently, Eddy's pirated ship discovers and takes over a ship full of prospective brides, bound for the French-controlled small sugar and coffee island of Martinique, who become the brides of his band of bondsmen escapees(sort of like in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") Coincidentally, Eddy is surprised to find Jeanette on this ship, on her way back to France. Very strange that these French girls were taken to N.O. first, then back east to Martinique! Girls raised in N.O. were more likely to survive the various tropical diseases that killed so many new colonists.
Eddy sings his best-remembered non-romantic-themed song in the rabble-rousing "Stouthearted Men": functionally equivalent to "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" in "Naughty Marietta", and "The Mounties" in "Rose Marie". It helps Eddy's character rouse the bondsmen to join him in pirating the ship "New Moon", to escape to 'freedom'. "Maytime" lacked a functionally equivalent song, because the screenplay didn't require one. However, Eddy did lead a rousing male group sing in a tavern. Here, Eddy also sings "Shoes", immediately followed by the brief "Softly, as a Morning Sunrise". Eddy also lead a group protest sing aboard the ship. Eddy seems unusually stiff, until he breaks free of being a bondsman, when the exchanges with Jeanette become classics. Jeanette's apparent conversion to the revolution at the end, after learning it succeeded in France, is a bit unconvincing.
The 4 'classic' JM & NE films all ended with a reprisal duet of a memorable 'signature' love song. Here, it's "Wanting You", which is blended with "Stouthearted Men" by a male chorus: similar to the ending in "Naughty Marietta", However, this film is unusual, in that there are actually two such songs(also, "Lover, Come Back to Me"), which are sung by one or both several times, and the less memorable(to me) is the one sung at the ending.
Unlike the previous film version of the Romberg-scored "Maytime" operetta, all of the most memorable songs from the original play were retained here, and , with some alterations of the details, the basic plot was retained. In addition, 4 songs were newly composed by Romberg for the film. The most memorable of these are "Stranger in Paris"(ironically, sung aboard the ship) and "Dance Your Cares Away"...The African American spiritual "Troubles of the World" is also included, in a night scene, functioning like "Ole Man River", in "Showboat"
Incidentally, historically, Louisiana Territory, including New Orleans, was officially transferred from French to Spanish administration in 1763. Thus, the governor should be Spanish, but clearly is cast as French. Also, French political prisoners were unlikely to be sent there as bondsmen during that period. Also, historically, the year before this story takes place, most of New Orleans burned to the ground: one of several devastating fires before much was rebuilt with brick.
It's a shame that JM & NE never got to do another classic Romberg-Hammerstein-scored classic: "The Desert Song", nor Kerns' classic "Showboat". Jeanette's successor at MGM as an opera-trained singer: Kathryn Grayson, would get to costar in both of these, in the '50s.
