The Merry Widow (1952)

The King of Marshovia (Thomas Gomez) commands his nephew (Fernando Lamas) to woo a rich American widow (Lana Turner) so they can pay off the country's national debt. But the nephew mistakes the widow's secretary (Una Merkel) for the rich American while the real widow passes herself off as an American chorus girl. Based on the popular 1905 Franz Lehar operetta which had already seen two major film incarnations. Erich von Stroheim did a silent version in 1925 while Ernst Lubitsch did the first sound version in 1934 and even in the 1970s, there was a planned version with Barbra Streisand directed by Ingmar Bergman that never came to fruition. As directed by Curtis Bernhardt, this version gets the full lush MGM treatment so we get gorgeous sets and costumes though most of Lehar's songs have been cut. One has to question why film an operetta and cast the lead with a non-singer (Turner is dubbed in her one song) though I suppose we should be grateful we were spared Kathryn Grayson's trilling. Other than the sets and costumes (both Oscar nominated), the best thing about the film is Jack Cole's choreography though there's not enough of it. With Richard Haydn, Robert Coote, John Abbott, Marcel Dalio, Lisa Ferraday and Gwen Verdon.