Monte Carlo (1930)

Monte Carlo - 1930

Our next film is 1930's "Monte Carlo", starring Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonald.  After running away on the day of her wedding, a Countess goes to Monte Carlo, where she is courted by a Count posing as a hairdresser.

The film's supporting cast includes Claud Allister, Zasu Pitts, Tyler Brooke, and Lionel Belmore.

The film opens with a wedding.  Countess Helene Mara is to marry Duke Otto von Liebenheim.  However, things quickly go south when the bride runs away.  To top it all off, it starts to rain, which further dampens the spirits of the crowd and guests.

Duke Otto tries to reassure his guests that the wedding will take place...eventually.  He promises to bring Countess Helene back and marry her.

Helene, however, has other plans.  She jumps on a moving train with her maid.  When she takes off her coat, it's revealed she's only wearing her undergarments.  "The narrowest escape I’ve ever had.  Five more minutes and I’d have been married.  I even had the wedding gown on.  But, fortunately, it didn’t fit.  And suddenly, I realized it was fate.  The dressmaker had saved the day.  Oh, think what I owe that dressmaker.  I owe him for the dress, too!"

She starts talking with her maid about going to Monte Carlo, where she plans to make a lot of money so she can be financially independent.  While chatting, the conductor comes and asks if she was the lady who jumped on the train after they had started.  "Yes, and I shall complain about it.  Trains don’t go until I get on them."

After arriving in Monte Carlo and checking into the Palace Hotel, Helene heads straight for the casino.

Count Rudolph Farriere sees Helene as she walks into the casino.  He's instantly attracted to her, and he tries to start a conversation.  She ignores him completely.

Inside, Helene bets heavily.  She's watched by Count Rudolph, who looks on her with pleasure.  Helene initially wins a great deal of money, but her luck runs out on the roulette wheel and she's left with nothing.

When she returns to her room that night, her maid tells her that she's engaged several more servants and now has the entire floor to herself.  Helene knows she can't possibly pay for it, and goes to bed not knowing what she'll do.

Count Rudolph is still in love with her, though.  He gains access to her room by pretending to be her new hairdresser.  Of course, he hasn't the faintest clue how to dress hair.

Of course, he doesn't let that stop him.  He makes lots of noises with the scissors as he pretends to cut her hair.  The only hair he really cuts is a small sample that he can put away in a locket.  Helene is furious with him as he proceeds with his treatments.

She tells him she never wants to see him again and that she's got a headache due to his "hairdressing".  He immediately launches into a scalp massage.  Although she initially resists, she finds it feels wonderful and he keeps going.

She decides to call him "Rudy" and she's made the decision that he can stay.

She eventually has him doing everything from footman to chauffeur.  Eventually, she tells him she can't afford him anymore and that he'll have to go.  Rudolph tells her that he's given up a lot of business for her and he's severed his contacts with other women clients.  Still, Helene says there's nothing she can do.  She's out of money.

Duke Otto, however, has tracked her down and tells her that he'll settle all her debts if she'll agree to marry him.  He knows that she's not in it for love and only for his money, but he wants her anyway.  She reluctantly agrees.

Count Rudolph isn't at all happy about it (but he still doesn't let on who he really is).  Helene tells him that she supposes she'll be able to keep him.

Count Rudolph doesn't want her to marry Duke Otto.  He tells her to give him a little money and he'll make her enough money at the casino that she won't need to marry the duke.  She's enthusiastic about the scheme, and after dressing for the evening, decides to accompany Rudolph and watch him win for her.

They get to the casino, and after finding that the Duke is there, decide to leave.  They spend the rest of the evening seeing the sights of Monte Carlo and enjoying each other's company.

Count Rudolph goes to his rooms and gets money from his own stash (two hundred thousand francs).  He brings the money to Helene and tells her he won it in the casino.

She's so grateful.  After the wonderful evening they spent together, she falls into his arms and the two share a passionate kiss.

However, after a conversation with her maid about the propriety of a countess getting involved with a hairdresser ("And, Countess, if I were you, I wouldn’t let my hairdresser do anything else...but dress my hair," says the maid), Helene decides that "Rudy" must go.  He makes a big scene and storms off.

That night, after realizing she loves him, Helene calls up all the hairdressing shops in town looking for Rudy, but none have heard of him.  Count Rudolph is having a shave in one of the shops when she calls.  He speaks to her.  She wants him to dress her hair for the opera that night.  He agrees to come.

Duke Otto goes to the opera alone, leaving Helene to follow after Rudy finishes with her hair.

Still hurt by the way she sent him away, Count Rudolph has a little fun by saying that he's only come because when she goes to the opera, his handiwork will be seen by a lot of potential women clients.  Helene is appalled when she realizes she'll be a walking advertisement for him.

She immediately starts pulling at her hair.  She screams at him that this is the way she'll go to the opera.  Then all the women will see what kind of a hairdresser he really is.  She says she'll ruin him!

After Rudolph leaves, Helene reorganizes her hair, and then goes to the opera, arriving late.

It turns out that the opera is about a princess who is in love with a hairdresser, though Helene doesn't know this.  She arrives after the second act.

After gaining admittance to the opera house, she joins Duke Otto in his private box.

He asks about her hairdressing appointment.  She curtly tells him that she doesn't want to hear anything about hairdressers ever again.

"What is the opera about?" Helene asks Duke Otto.  He nervously responds that it's about a hairdresser.  She looks at him, shocked.

"Oh, it’s a silly story.  Only possible with music.  Imagine a lady falling in love with a hairdresser," says Duke Otto with a laugh.  She looks at him quite seriously and says, "That’s possible even without music.  Things like that happen every day."

Helene looks around the opera house and notices Count Rudolph.  She wonders what he could be doing there, and in the expensive seats, too!  She pieces together that he's not a hairdresser.  During the opera, we find out that the hairdresser is actually the son of the king, and the princess cast him out when she thought he was a hairdresser.

As the opera unfolds, Helene realizes how it parallels her story with Rudolph.  He, on the other hand, can hardly contain himself as he laughs, trying to hide behind his program.

He goes to her and they finish the opera.  The king's son refuses to take the princess, because she refused to take him when she thought he was a hairdresser.  Helene starts to get upset at the way the story unfolds.  Rudolph takes Helene in his arms and says, "I don't like that ending."

The two are married and they sing "Beyond The Blue Horizon" as their train makes its way through the countryside.

Cast rundown:

   Jack Buchanan.....................................Count Rudolph Farriere

   Jeanette MacDonald..............................Countess Helene Mara

   Claud Allister........................................Duke Otto von Liebenheim

   Zasu Pitts............................................Bertha

   Tyler Brooke.........................................Armand

   Lionel Belmore.....................................Prince Gustav von Liebenheim

And that's it for Monte Carlo.  "Beyond The Blue Horizon" which was sung by Jeanette MacDonald and written specifically for the film, became her signature song, and she performed it for the rest of her life.  This film came out when sound musicals were making a debut, and it was lauded as a masterpiece of the genre.  The ending scene at the opera is particularly well done.

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