The Merry Widow
About The Merry Widow
In Monteblanco, cousins Prince Danilo and Crown Prince Mirko both pursue American dancer Sally O'Hara. She chooses Danilo. King Nikita and the queen block the marriage because she is a commoner. Sally, sure she has been dropped, marries old Baron Sadoja, whose money holds the kingdom up. He dies of excitement on the wedding night. Sally goes to Paris as the Merry Widow. Mirko follows her fortune. Danilo follows her. A slight leads to a duel; Danilo is wounded and lets the cousin he thinks she loves have the advantage. Mirko is assassinated. Danilo is heir. Sally comes to the hospital and asks him to marry her.
Cast & crew
More about The Merry Widow
Erich von Stroheim directed and wrote the adaptation of Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta. It is the second film version, after a 1918 Hungarian picture directed by Michael Curtiz. Mae Murray is Sally, John Gilbert is Danilo, Roy D'Arcy is Mirko, and Tully Marshall is Baron Sadoja.
Themes
Making
MGM spent $592,000. Worldwide rentals came to $1.933 million.
Preservation
A print running about 137 minutes is in circulation.
Notes
- Joan Crawford and Clark Gable appear uncredited, before either was a star.
- A duel, an assassination, and a wedding-night death are Stroheim's additions around the operetta's widow plot.
Scenes
- Baron Sadoja dies of excitement on the wedding night.
- Sally, now the Merry Widow, is courted again in Paris.
Influenced by
- Franz Lehár, The Merry Widow (1905 operetta)
- The Merry Widow (1918 film, Michael Curtiz)
