Indian Love Call
© Thomas Wilson Shawcross 26 February 2005
“When I'm calling you-oo-oo-oo oo-oo-oo!
You will answer too-oo-oo-oo oo-oo-oo!
That means I offer my love to you to be your own.
If you refuse me, I will be blue
And waiting all alone;
But if when you hear my love call ringing clear,
And I hear your answering echo, so dear,
Then I will know our love will come true,
You'll belong to me, I'll belong to you!”
Refrain from Indian Love Call, lyrics by
Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach
Great Art has a way of grabbing one by the throat, putting the “sleeper hold” on all distractions, and riveting one’s attention in such a way that the first experience of any Great Art is never forgotten. So it was for me in 1960, the first time I heard Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald sing Indian Love Call, in their 1936 movie classic Rose Marie.
I suppose I had turned on our Zenith television set after I had come home from school, and the movie was playing on the channel that happened to be on, so I watched it. In those days, no one had remote-control “clickers,” and one had to get up from the couch, walk over to the TV, and manually turn a dial to change channels. So, unless a program was especially objectionable, whatever channel was the last one watched tended to stay king of the hill until some energetic person got up and changed the dial. Usually, not me.
Love story movies are not my first-choice in cinematic entertainment, but there was a Canadian Mountie in this one, so maybe there would be some good action scenes. Sgt. Preston TV shows had always been worth watching, so maybe this would be ok too.
As it turned out, the movie was actually kind of interesting, for a love story, although I had forgotten most of the plot until I read a summary of it tonight (see the end of this story).
I suppose I was only paying partial attention until Nelson and Jeanette got into a canoe and started singing the amazing Indian Love Call.
Wow.
I wish I had a movie of me watching this scene. I suspect I was literally transfixed.
At the supper table that evening, I told Mom, Dad, and Jim about this wonderful song I had heard. I wanted to enlighten them, I suppose. I was chagrined to learn from Mom & Dad that the scene I had so graciously reenacted for them was considered to be an all-time classic. Who knew?
In case you would like to know more about this movie, here is an excerpt from http://www.dandugan.com/maytime/f-rosema.html
1936 Movie Poster for Rose Marie
Cast:
Jeanette MacDonald (Marie de Flor)
Nelson Eddy (Sergeant Bruce)
Reginald Owen (Myerson)
Allan Jones (Romeo, also Mario Cavaradossi)
James Stewart (John "Jack" Flower)
Alan Mowbray (Premier)
George Regas (Boniface)
Robert Greig (Cafe Manager)
Una O'Connor (Roderick, Marie's maid)
Lucien Littlefield (Storekeeper)
David Nivens [later "Niven"] (Teddy, a suitor)
Herman Bing (Mr. Danielle)
James Conlin (Joe, the piano player)
Dorothy Gray (Edith)
Mary Anita Loos (Corn Queen)
Aileen Carlyle (Susan)
Halliwell Hobbes (Mr. Gordon, opera manager)
Paul Porcasi (Emil, the chef)
Gilda Gray (Belle)
Bert Lindley (Pop)
Edgar Dearing (Motorcycle Policeman)
Pat West (Traveling Salesman)
Charles Brune (Man shaving in his BVD's)
Milton Owen (Stage Manager)
David Clyde (Doorman)
Russell Hicks (Commandant)
Rolfe Sedan, Louis Mercier (Admirers in Hall)
Jack Pennick (Brawler)
Leonard Carey (Louis)
David Robel, Rinaldo Alacorn, Joseph Cherrie, Bill cody, Iron Eyes Cody (Dancers)
Matty Roubert (Newsboy)
Major Sam Harris (Guest)
Ernie Alexander (Elevator Operator)
James Mason [American silent film villain, not British star] (Trapper)
John George, Lee Phelps (Barflies)
Fred Graham (Corporal)
Olga Dane (Roméo et Juliette singer)
Agostino Borgato, Adrian Rosley (Opera Fans)
Delos Jewkes (Butcher at Hotel)
Bits: Duke York, Julie Laird, Linda Parker, James Young, Tony Beard, Alesandro Giglio, Gennaro Maria-Curci, Doris Atkinson, Bill Steele, Margaret Zitt, Edith Holloway, William Stack
One of the twenty-five top-grossing films of 1935-1936.
Overview:
Stand on any street corner with a microphone and ask passersby to name a Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musical. Nine out of ten will mention Rose Marie. In most minds, this film characterizes operetta and "the team" more than anything else they did together. Any recreation of the Golden Age of Film, comic or nostalgic, will inevitably include a singing Mountie and a lavishly-gowned and ringleted soprano.
The heroine of the stage Rose-Marie was a backwoods urchin who acquires a gloss of civilization but decides to return to her true love in the wilderness. The 1936 film version discards the stage plot for a tale of a temperamental opera singer who spurns suitors, but dotes on her ne'er-do-well kid brother who is serving time for armed robbery. In the stage version, the Mountie is a secondary character. Here he is the hero, forever associating Nelson and the distinctive Mountie hat.
The director, producer, and most of the writers, designers, and technicians for Rose Marie are the same people who created Naughty Marietta. The cast includes a generous sprinkling of prominent character actors from MGM's well-stocked stable, plus three interesting new faces: Young David Niven as a rejected suitor, singer Allan Jones who teams with MacDonald in two opera sequences, and Jimmy Stewart, compelling in the small part of the kid brother.
The title rôle was originally prepared for Grace Moore, but when the film was ready for shooting, she was unavailable until after Eddy was scheduled to leave on his annual concert tour. Since so much of the film was to be shot on location at Cascade Lake and Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, during the summer months of 1935, there was no possibility of delay, and the role fell to Miss MacDonald. The plot line of the high-strung prima donna and even the choice of opera sequences were all holdovers from a Moore vehicle. (Miss Moore had sung both Juliette and Tosca at the Met.)
Plot:
On stage, opera star Marie de Flor (Jeanette) is sweetness personified. Backstage she bitches at everyone in sight, including the tenor (Allan Jones) and a playboy suitor (David Niven). She tells her maid (Una O'Connor) that no man except her imprisoned baby brother, Jack, is worth caring about. However, when the Premier of Canada (Alan Mowbray) invites her to dine, she eagerly accepts, hoping to charm him into pardoning her brother.
During the meal, Marie is called outside to speak to a mysterious backwoodsman (George Regas). He tells Marie that Jack has been wounded while escaping from prison and needs her help. Worse, Jack has killed a Mountie. Marie half faints with horror, but family loyalty is too strong. She borrows money from her manager and rushes off to the wilderness with the guide who has brought the message.
At the outpost of Lake Shibuga, Marie's money is stolen by her erstwhile guide. She is terrified of reporting her loss to the Mountie on duty, Sgt. Bruce (Nelson), who has just replaced the murdered officer. Instead she tries singing for tips at the local saloon, but is quickly upstaged by Belle (Gilda Gray), a gyrating local chanteuse who knows what the fellas like. (Watching Jeanette try to "hot" it up in imitation of shimmying Gilda Gray is one of the high points of the film.) Sgt. Bruce watches this singing duel and commiserates with the loser: "You have a beautiful voice. One thing about Belle...if she ever got lumbago, she couldn't sing a note."
Marie tells Sgt. Bruce that her name is "Rose" to account for the "R" on her borrowed suitcase. "Rose...Marie de Flor" he records on his report. He has recognized her.
Sgt. Bruce insists on escorting "Rose Marie" to an Indian festival where she may spot her errant guide. This allows a charming serenade in a canoe ("Rose Marie") and a big production number ("Totem Tom Tom"). She finds her guide and secretly arranges to depart with him. Sgt. Bruce follows them, arriving just in time to rescue Marie from drowning when her guide again flees.
During the days they spend traveling through the woods together, Marie is transformed from prissy tenderfoot to experienced trail hand, and the two fall in love, singing the "Indian Love Call." They reach their destination and part, Marie slipping off to the cabin where her brother is hiding. But Sgt. Bruce (no first name is ever used!) has secretly followed. He arrives and arrests Jack, taking him away to inevitable hanging. Marie tries to call him back with the "Indian Love Call," but duty is too strong. Jack (Jimmy Stewart) has a brief but forceful scene as he tries to explain his life to Sgt. Bruce.
Back in the opera, Marie is performing in Tosca, but the firing squad finale is too much for her. She collapses on stage. In the stage version, the lovers use the "Indian Love Call" to find each other in the wilderness. In the MacDonald/Eddy Rose Marie, it seems like the location budget ran out. Instead of voices echoing dramatically through the pines, we have an unmotivated, sound stage finale. Six months have passed and Marie is still languishing in a nursing home. Suddenly Sgt. Bruce shows up at her bedside and, with snow swirling outside the window, they reunite to a final chorus of "Indian Love Call."
Reviews:
With this second costarring film, the popular press rushed to herald the "team" and Nelson Eddy. "Rose Marie stars make perfect team," wrote Kate Cameron in the New York News. "Judging by the reception accorded him, the tall, blond, and husky concert baritone, Nelson Eddy has become a serious threat to Clark Gable for the honor of being the movies' No. 1 matinee idol," said Rose Pelswick of the New York Journal.
The more staid New York Times also raved: "As blithely melodious and rich in scenic beauty as any picture that has come from Hollywood. To paraphrase Fletcher, let Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy sing an operetta's love songs, and we care not who may write the book. In splendid voice, whether singing solo or in duet, they prove to be fully as delightful a combination here as they were in Naughty Marietta.
Variety praised the new libretto, the director, the stars, and just about every major scene in the film: "A box-office honey." However, they deplored the unflattering effect of the Mountie hat on Eddy. "From Bill Hart down, the kiddies never could quite look very Romeo under that hunk of Stetson."
TWS note: Today’s Story was inspired by Melanie Johnson, of Sparta, Illinois, who had emailed me about the "One Square Inch of the Yukon" story I wrote regarding the Sgt. Preston TV show and the Quaker cereal promotion. It’s funny how one story can lead to another . .
“When I'm calling you-oo-oo-oo oo-oo-oo!
You will answer too-oo-oo-oo oo-oo-oo!
That means I offer my love to you to be your own.
If you refuse me, I will be blue
And waiting all alone;
But if when you hear my love call ringing clear,
And I hear your answering echo, so dear,
Then I will know our love will come true,
You'll belong to me, I'll belong to you!”
Refrain from Indian Love Call, lyrics by
Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach
Great Art has a way of grabbing one by the throat, putting the “sleeper hold” on all distractions, and riveting one’s attention in such a way that the first experience of any Great Art is never forgotten. So it was for me in 1960, the first time I heard Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald sing Indian Love Call, in their 1936 movie classic Rose Marie.
I suppose I had turned on our Zenith television set after I had come home from school, and the movie was playing on the channel that happened to be on, so I watched it. In those days, no one had remote-control “clickers,” and one had to get up from the couch, walk over to the TV, and manually turn a dial to change channels. So, unless a program was especially objectionable, whatever channel was the last one watched tended to stay king of the hill until some energetic person got up and changed the dial. Usually, not me.
Love story movies are not my first-choice in cinematic entertainment, but there was a Canadian Mountie in this one, so maybe there would be some good action scenes. Sgt. Preston TV shows had always been worth watching, so maybe this would be ok too.
As it turned out, the movie was actually kind of interesting, for a love story, although I had forgotten most of the plot until I read a summary of it tonight (see the end of this story).
I suppose I was only paying partial attention until Nelson and Jeanette got into a canoe and started singing the amazing Indian Love Call.
Wow.
I wish I had a movie of me watching this scene. I suspect I was literally transfixed.
At the supper table that evening, I told Mom, Dad, and Jim about this wonderful song I had heard. I wanted to enlighten them, I suppose. I was chagrined to learn from Mom & Dad that the scene I had so graciously reenacted for them was considered to be an all-time classic. Who knew?
In case you would like to know more about this movie, here is an excerpt from http://www.dandugan.com/maytime/f-rosema.html
1936 Movie Poster for Rose Marie
Cast:
Jeanette MacDonald (Marie de Flor)
Nelson Eddy (Sergeant Bruce)
Reginald Owen (Myerson)
Allan Jones (Romeo, also Mario Cavaradossi)
James Stewart (John "Jack" Flower)
Alan Mowbray (Premier)
George Regas (Boniface)
Robert Greig (Cafe Manager)
Una O'Connor (Roderick, Marie's maid)
Lucien Littlefield (Storekeeper)
David Nivens [later "Niven"] (Teddy, a suitor)
Herman Bing (Mr. Danielle)
James Conlin (Joe, the piano player)
Dorothy Gray (Edith)
Mary Anita Loos (Corn Queen)
Aileen Carlyle (Susan)
Halliwell Hobbes (Mr. Gordon, opera manager)
Paul Porcasi (Emil, the chef)
Gilda Gray (Belle)
Bert Lindley (Pop)
Edgar Dearing (Motorcycle Policeman)
Pat West (Traveling Salesman)
Charles Brune (Man shaving in his BVD's)
Milton Owen (Stage Manager)
David Clyde (Doorman)
Russell Hicks (Commandant)
Rolfe Sedan, Louis Mercier (Admirers in Hall)
Jack Pennick (Brawler)
Leonard Carey (Louis)
David Robel, Rinaldo Alacorn, Joseph Cherrie, Bill cody, Iron Eyes Cody (Dancers)
Matty Roubert (Newsboy)
Major Sam Harris (Guest)
Ernie Alexander (Elevator Operator)
James Mason [American silent film villain, not British star] (Trapper)
John George, Lee Phelps (Barflies)
Fred Graham (Corporal)
Olga Dane (Roméo et Juliette singer)
Agostino Borgato, Adrian Rosley (Opera Fans)
Delos Jewkes (Butcher at Hotel)
Bits: Duke York, Julie Laird, Linda Parker, James Young, Tony Beard, Alesandro Giglio, Gennaro Maria-Curci, Doris Atkinson, Bill Steele, Margaret Zitt, Edith Holloway, William Stack
One of the twenty-five top-grossing films of 1935-1936.
Overview:
Stand on any street corner with a microphone and ask passersby to name a Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musical. Nine out of ten will mention Rose Marie. In most minds, this film characterizes operetta and "the team" more than anything else they did together. Any recreation of the Golden Age of Film, comic or nostalgic, will inevitably include a singing Mountie and a lavishly-gowned and ringleted soprano.
The heroine of the stage Rose-Marie was a backwoods urchin who acquires a gloss of civilization but decides to return to her true love in the wilderness. The 1936 film version discards the stage plot for a tale of a temperamental opera singer who spurns suitors, but dotes on her ne'er-do-well kid brother who is serving time for armed robbery. In the stage version, the Mountie is a secondary character. Here he is the hero, forever associating Nelson and the distinctive Mountie hat.
The director, producer, and most of the writers, designers, and technicians for Rose Marie are the same people who created Naughty Marietta. The cast includes a generous sprinkling of prominent character actors from MGM's well-stocked stable, plus three interesting new faces: Young David Niven as a rejected suitor, singer Allan Jones who teams with MacDonald in two opera sequences, and Jimmy Stewart, compelling in the small part of the kid brother.
The title rôle was originally prepared for Grace Moore, but when the film was ready for shooting, she was unavailable until after Eddy was scheduled to leave on his annual concert tour. Since so much of the film was to be shot on location at Cascade Lake and Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, during the summer months of 1935, there was no possibility of delay, and the role fell to Miss MacDonald. The plot line of the high-strung prima donna and even the choice of opera sequences were all holdovers from a Moore vehicle. (Miss Moore had sung both Juliette and Tosca at the Met.)
Plot:
On stage, opera star Marie de Flor (Jeanette) is sweetness personified. Backstage she bitches at everyone in sight, including the tenor (Allan Jones) and a playboy suitor (David Niven). She tells her maid (Una O'Connor) that no man except her imprisoned baby brother, Jack, is worth caring about. However, when the Premier of Canada (Alan Mowbray) invites her to dine, she eagerly accepts, hoping to charm him into pardoning her brother.
During the meal, Marie is called outside to speak to a mysterious backwoodsman (George Regas). He tells Marie that Jack has been wounded while escaping from prison and needs her help. Worse, Jack has killed a Mountie. Marie half faints with horror, but family loyalty is too strong. She borrows money from her manager and rushes off to the wilderness with the guide who has brought the message.
At the outpost of Lake Shibuga, Marie's money is stolen by her erstwhile guide. She is terrified of reporting her loss to the Mountie on duty, Sgt. Bruce (Nelson), who has just replaced the murdered officer. Instead she tries singing for tips at the local saloon, but is quickly upstaged by Belle (Gilda Gray), a gyrating local chanteuse who knows what the fellas like. (Watching Jeanette try to "hot" it up in imitation of shimmying Gilda Gray is one of the high points of the film.) Sgt. Bruce watches this singing duel and commiserates with the loser: "You have a beautiful voice. One thing about Belle...if she ever got lumbago, she couldn't sing a note."
Marie tells Sgt. Bruce that her name is "Rose" to account for the "R" on her borrowed suitcase. "Rose...Marie de Flor" he records on his report. He has recognized her.
Sgt. Bruce insists on escorting "Rose Marie" to an Indian festival where she may spot her errant guide. This allows a charming serenade in a canoe ("Rose Marie") and a big production number ("Totem Tom Tom"). She finds her guide and secretly arranges to depart with him. Sgt. Bruce follows them, arriving just in time to rescue Marie from drowning when her guide again flees.
During the days they spend traveling through the woods together, Marie is transformed from prissy tenderfoot to experienced trail hand, and the two fall in love, singing the "Indian Love Call." They reach their destination and part, Marie slipping off to the cabin where her brother is hiding. But Sgt. Bruce (no first name is ever used!) has secretly followed. He arrives and arrests Jack, taking him away to inevitable hanging. Marie tries to call him back with the "Indian Love Call," but duty is too strong. Jack (Jimmy Stewart) has a brief but forceful scene as he tries to explain his life to Sgt. Bruce.
Back in the opera, Marie is performing in Tosca, but the firing squad finale is too much for her. She collapses on stage. In the stage version, the lovers use the "Indian Love Call" to find each other in the wilderness. In the MacDonald/Eddy Rose Marie, it seems like the location budget ran out. Instead of voices echoing dramatically through the pines, we have an unmotivated, sound stage finale. Six months have passed and Marie is still languishing in a nursing home. Suddenly Sgt. Bruce shows up at her bedside and, with snow swirling outside the window, they reunite to a final chorus of "Indian Love Call."
Reviews:
With this second costarring film, the popular press rushed to herald the "team" and Nelson Eddy. "Rose Marie stars make perfect team," wrote Kate Cameron in the New York News. "Judging by the reception accorded him, the tall, blond, and husky concert baritone, Nelson Eddy has become a serious threat to Clark Gable for the honor of being the movies' No. 1 matinee idol," said Rose Pelswick of the New York Journal.
The more staid New York Times also raved: "As blithely melodious and rich in scenic beauty as any picture that has come from Hollywood. To paraphrase Fletcher, let Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy sing an operetta's love songs, and we care not who may write the book. In splendid voice, whether singing solo or in duet, they prove to be fully as delightful a combination here as they were in Naughty Marietta.
Variety praised the new libretto, the director, the stars, and just about every major scene in the film: "A box-office honey." However, they deplored the unflattering effect of the Mountie hat on Eddy. "From Bill Hart down, the kiddies never could quite look very Romeo under that hunk of Stetson."
TWS note: Today’s Story was inspired by Melanie Johnson, of Sparta, Illinois, who had emailed me about the "One Square Inch of the Yukon" story I wrote regarding the Sgt. Preston TV show and the Quaker cereal promotion. It’s funny how one story can lead to another . .
posted by Tom Shawcross | 7:48 PM
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