The Cat and the Fiddle

Not Terrific But Wonderful
It's admirable of Warner Classics to keep making these less well-known titles
available. This adaptation of a Kern-Harbach stage show uses very little of the
original storyline but manages to cram in most of the main melodies. And the
last five minutes are in color. Basically, Ramon Novarro is an operetta composer
and Jeanette MacDonald is a composer, too. In the stage show, she was a pop
tunesmith, and the two were in a culture war. The movie loses most of this, and,
frankly, the story loses power. Still, the music is wonderful and there's lots
of it, and MacDonald gets another chance to play a woman sensible and artistic
who is constantly perplexed by the craziness of men. It's a great part for her,
and she plays it very well. Novarro is a passable singer, but of course MacDonald
is one of Hollywood's great vocalists. Her fans will have to have this, and
students of the Broadway-Hollywood interchange will want this movie as...





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