I Married an Angel (1942)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:

János Vaszary (play)
Richard Rodgers (musical adaptation for play) ...

Release Date:

9 July 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Musical | Romance | Comedy

Tagline:

America's Favorite Sweethearts in their final pairing!

Plot:

Anna Zador is a secretary who's been working for 6 years at Count Willie Palaffi's bank. Every day,...

Plot Keywords:

Angel | Opera | Rodgers & Hart | Tact | Animal Rights

Cast

Jeanette MacDonald	...	Anna / Brigitta
Nelson Eddy	...	Count Palaffi
Edward Everett Horton	...	Peter
Binnie Barnes	...	Peggy
Reginald Owen	...	'Whiskers'
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Baron Szigethy
Mona Maris	...	Marika
Janis Carter	...	Sufi
Inez Cooper	...	Iren
Leonid Kinskey	...	Zinski
Anne Jeffreys	...	Polly
Marion Rosamond	...	Dolly

Runtime:

84 min | USA:90 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #8401) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Sherwood Forest, California, USA

Company:

Loew's

Trivia:

Because the Hays Code had taken effect in the years since this project was first suggested to MGM, the show's "racy" content (the idea of an angel having sex with a mortal) had to be considerably toned down for the film.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hollywood: Style Center of the World (1940)

Soundtrack:

Now You've Met The Angel

"Hey Butcher, Hey Baker, Love's Landed a Real Haymaker"

It was not planned that way, but as it turns out the film adaption of the Rodgers&Hart Broadway musical I Married an Angel turned out to be the last pairing of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Nelson in fact left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after this film and bought his own contract out for $250,000.00 according to a recently published book about the pair by Sheryl Rich.

They are in good voice and the songs of Rodgers&Hart never got a better treatment. Unfortunately the film ran into some censorship problems about celestial creatures doing some very earthly things. Rodgers&Hart were busy on Broadway and couldn't help. Two very big shows for them, Pal Joey and By Jupiter kept them occupied.

Nelson is a happy carefree Hungarian playboy who's grandfather started the Bank of Budapest. But Nelson would rather spend his time with wine, women, and song and since it's Nelson Eddy, song doesn't take third place to the other two. At his birthday party he's taken by a little known to him employee at the bank in an angel costume. Guess who that is? Feeling a little the worse for wear from the revelry, Nelson takes a little snooze.

During the dream Jeanette appears to him as a real angel and Nelson is smitten. He asks her to marry him and she agrees. She's without a dishonest bone in her heavenly body.

Unfortunately her time in heaven has not prepared her to deal with certain earthly hypocrisies. It's one wild celestial ride that Jeanette gives Nelson.

The title song, I'll Tell the Man in the Street, and Spring is Here are the big hit numbers from the Broadway show and the stars do them well. The satire comes off far better here than it did for Jeanette and Nelson in Bittersweet, but still censorship really crippled some of the best lines from Broadway.

Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen, Edward Everett Horton and Douglass Dumbrille give good support to the singing sweethearts. Barnes practically steals the show as the wisecracking earthly friend of MacDonald who sets out to teach her worldly ways.

I think fans of MacDonald and Eddy and others who do knock this film ought to give it a second look. It's not as bad as some would make it out to be.