"Rosalie" is possibly the movie people are thinking of when they remark, "I hate musicals." This 1937 MGM extravaganza has the stars, the music, the costumes, the over-the-top sets, the silly filmscript and the giddy, romantic settings that have become synonymous with the big, Hollywood musicals of the 1930's and '40's. So... why doesn't it work? Director W.S. Van Dyke (also credited with box office musical hits such as "Naughty Marietta") certainly knew how to pace his material; he's ably assisted here by a Cole Porter score, two big box-office stars (Nelson Eddy and Eleanor Powell), a rafter of comedic supporting players (including Frank Morgan and Edna May Oliver doing their best Frank Morgan and Edna May Oliver imitations) and a gazillion dancing, singing extras.
Perhaps the movie's failure lies in the fact that there's very little romantic heat generated between Eddy and Powell. If you're making a foolish (and "Rosalie" is nothing if not foolish) boy-meets-girl movie musical, you'd better have sparks flying between your boy and girl. Golden-throated Nelson Eddy does his moon-calf best to gaze adoringly at Eleanor Powell, but the only time you believe Eleanor Powell's character is when she's telling Eddy that she hates him. Which she does repeatedly during the course of the movie's two hours. In a movie like "Rosalie," the lack of chemistry between the two stars is a death sentence. All of a sudden, the viewer notices the threadbare plot, the formulaic comedy, the ridiculous settings (from West Point and Vassar to a mythic, Balkan kingdom named 'Romanza' which is apparently so small that Eddy and sidekick Ray Bolger have trouble finding it on a map but which is still large enough to be able to turn out ten million gorgeously arrayed peasants for big musical numbers) and the basic silliness of it all. In a romantic musical where there is chemistry between the stars, the audience forgives and accepts all; where chemistry is lacking, the audience suddenly realizes the movie hasn't a brain in its head.
Still, there are moments in "Rosalie" that make it worth watching. Does it matter that all those moments are music and dance numbers? Nope. That's what a musical is for.
Perhaps the movie's failure lies in the fact that there's very little romantic heat generated between Eddy and Powell. If you're making a foolish (and "Rosalie" is nothing if not foolish) boy-meets-girl movie musical, you'd better have sparks flying between your boy and girl. Golden-throated Nelson Eddy does his moon-calf best to gaze adoringly at Eleanor Powell, but the only time you believe Eleanor Powell's character is when she's telling Eddy that she hates him. Which she does repeatedly during the course of the movie's two hours. In a movie like "Rosalie," the lack of chemistry between the two stars is a death sentence. All of a sudden, the viewer notices the threadbare plot, the formulaic comedy, the ridiculous settings (from West Point and Vassar to a mythic, Balkan kingdom named 'Romanza' which is apparently so small that Eddy and sidekick Ray Bolger have trouble finding it on a map but which is still large enough to be able to turn out ten million gorgeously arrayed peasants for big musical numbers) and the basic silliness of it all. In a romantic musical where there is chemistry between the stars, the audience forgives and accepts all; where chemistry is lacking, the audience suddenly realizes the movie hasn't a brain in its head.
Still, there are moments in "Rosalie" that make it worth watching. Does it matter that all those moments are music and dance numbers? Nope. That's what a musical is for.