ExclusiveThe Chocolate Soldier” (1941): Love, Music, and the Art of Disguise

I have a true and noble lover, He's my sweetheart, all my love. He's like on earth, who shall discover, My heart is his, and it rushes to the penis. He makes me happy, happy, happy, Happy when he's true, cause he's you, he's you. Pugsy, Pugsy, will you stop peering out the window in that awful gloating way? Really, anyone would think- Yes, and they wouldn't be far wrong. Oh, I haven't felt so naughty in years. Why, you're trembling. Nonsense. But you are. Perhaps I am a bit nervous. Oh, you'll take him in your stride as you took all the others. The others? Why, all Budapest rang with your romantic tribes. Don't worry, darling, this Russian will be as clay in your hands. Oh, for heaven's sake, be quiet, Pugsy. I'm quite nervous enough as it is without having to listen to your unpleasant innuendos. Unpleasant? You might as well know that my romantic past in Budapest has been very much exaggerated. But all those lovers. My dear Pugsy, I had admirers. And if anyone was foolish enough to believe there were more than that, they were welcome to do so. Well, this is bad news. In fact, it's a view I rather encouraged. You see, I had Karl to consider. What did Karl have to do with it? Oh, Karl is always surrounded by hordes of doting women. So when I decided to marry him, I had to put up some sort of show. Keep them guessing, that's my motto. And it's the same thing with this Russian. Hmm, that'll teach a lesson to the chocolate soldier. I'm Rebecca Brannan. I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. Late 1930s and early 1940s, singing sweethearts Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy popularized classical singing with their movie versions of operettas. The movies they made separately during this time period ranged from clumsy disappointments to musical masterpieces. Nelson Eddy was on his way to a great career in opera as a baritone before he became a movie star. There's one film in particular which shows what kind of a career he might have had on the stage by pairing him with a metropolitan opera star. That film is The Chocolate Soldier from 1941. This movie centers around performers in musical comedy somewhere in Eastern Europe who are married as well as sweethearts on stage. After just five months of marriage, they're constantly bickering and suspecting each other of infidelities. The husband in particular, Carl, bemoans to his music critic best friend, Bernard that he's certain his wife no longer loves him and that she's going to leave him to return to opera or go to another man. He has no concrete evidence, but he decides that there's only one thing he must do. He has to create an elaborate scenario to see whether his wife is faithful. He disguises himself as a Russian operatic bass, Vasily Vasilyevich Varnovsky donning a wig, a beard, an elaborate costume, and a thick Russian accent to present himself as a suitor to tempt his wife. He is very dismayed when she seems smitten by this handsome Russian. Little does he know that his clever wife has seen right through his disguise and decided to play a little trick on him instead. This movie was made by MGM. It was produced by Victor Saville, directed by Roy Delruth and stars Nelson Eddy, Risa Stevens, Nigel Bruce, and Florence Bates. The most interesting thing about this movie right at first is that the title and the music are taken from a very popular operetta from 1909, The Chocolate Soldier. By Oskar Strauss. By Oskar Strauss, but the story is from a play called The Guardsmen. That's so interesting. It kind of takes the usual Hollywood technique of adapting things one step further because it was very common practice at the time to take the title and the score of a stage work and little or no of the story material, but it's unusual that they would actually take the story of a completely separate work rather than just making up their own story. Yes, there's a very complex history to both of these works because the story of The Chocolate Soldier originated as a satirical play, non-musical, by George Bernard Shaw called Arms and the Man. And then Oskar Strauss adapted it into an operetta. And Mr. Shaw was very unhappy with how it turned out. Reports vary as to whether it was just he didn't like his work being an operetta at all or he just didn't like the way he did it. So he was quite dismayed by that, even though it ended up being very successful and made his story a lot more famous. He just really didn't like it. Interesting. And it was adapted into a silent film in 1914, but they took a lot of the plot from the operetta, took a lot of inspiration from that rather than just from his play, so they actually ended up taking his name off of it because he was so unhappy with that. The Guardsmen started out as a stage play by Ferenc Molnar, Austrian I believe, called Tester. And sort of the definitive English version of it was The Guardsmen, played in America with the famous married acting team Lenten Fontaine. And they also starred in the 1931 film adaptation. So MGM already owned that property, and largely due to George Bernard Shaw, who was still alive, due to his objections to the operetta in general, they decided to not deal with the story at all. They just took the music and paired it with the story of The Guardsmen. So sort of the gimmick is that the characters of The Guardsmen, this married acting team, are performing in the operetta The Chocolate Soldier. And it works really well. It's interesting seeing throughout MGM in this pre-World War II period, and afterwards, but particularly in this period, how they would find different creative ways to do stage works about opera singers, and Nelson Eddy was in a lot of those. He oftentimes would be the Mountie, the soldier, whereas Jeanette MacDonald would be the opera singer. It's ironic. Even here, he's more the musical comedy star, whereas his wife, played by Risa Stevens, is the real operatic singer, which I have to say actually is pretty accurate, because although Nelson Eddy was classically trained, he didn't perform in much opera, because just as his career was getting off the ground, he was discovered by Hollywood, whereas Risa Stevens was one of the foremost mezzo-soprani, or contralto, if you go early enough, to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in the 20th century. This was her first movie, and she really only made a couple of them, because she wanted to focus on her operatic career, and she had a very interesting and unique career at the Met, because there were only a very small group of roles she wanted to play. As a mezzo, there were a lot of little supporting parts, but she really wanted to be the lead, and there were only a handful of operas that starred the mezzo. Yes, and movies like this are, especially this movie, a rare opportunity to see how great she was up close and personal in the early days of her career, as she plays this dramatic leading lady, and we also see what a great actress she was. Absolutely. Because she holds her own with any movie star in this performance. There's definitely something very theatrical, and need I say, it's like an opera. Of course it's like an opera, as we star these two great opera singers, but the story, the drama, the intrigue, the romance, the mistaken identity, the jealousy, the playing tricks on each other, it's like so many operas, from Mozart right down to later works like Puccini or Verdi. Although she is a mezzo and he is a baritone, I feel like if this were an opera, they're definitely the soprano and tenor characters, while her maid Pugsy would be the mezzo. Yes. And it's interesting in the fact that they are really the only musical stars in it. They're supported by a cast of just great character actors, like Nigel Bruce playing the very humorous best friend Bernard, and Florence Bates playing Pugsy, the hilarious maid who is sort of Risa Stevens' sidekick and the nemesis to Carl. This was one of the last movies Nelsonetti made at MGM before terminating his contract there. Right. And it's one of the few movies he made away from Jeanette MacDonald, which I think is really great. There were definitely a few others, particularly 1939, that I think were also excellent. But this movie, he really gets to shine for himself. He does some great singing, some amazing acting. He gets to display his phenomenal accents. Like, Russian is not an easy language in which to sing, and he not only sings in it, but speaks with an extremely convincing accent. And sings a song in English with a Russian accent, or a couple of them. That's a challenge in itself. It is a challenge. To maintain an accent while singing is a lot harder. He's not technically playing two characters, but he is playing someone who plays a couple of characters. He is both Carl, Carl as the character in The Chocolate Soldier, and Carl as the Russian. Yeah, he also has three characters. Yes, so a lot of complex and varied acting he has to do. And the nature of the story is so sort of outrageous in and of itself that you kind of need a couple of opera singers in there to pull it off, because the nature of opera is also, it's so over-the-top. You have to sort of be ready for that. And I think this story is the same way. If it had been a non-musical version, and they'd had someone like, I don't know, Robert Taylor, and Myrtle Loy, whoever, it would have been a very goofy, almost screwball comedy. But instead... Yeah, and I wouldn't like it. Yeah, it's so sophisticated because of all the music. Now, of course, we have to look at the music. First, we have the score of The Chocolate Soldier, which includes sort of the title song, I'm Just a Chocolate Soldier Man, and then My Hero is a song that's played several times throughout. It's both a duet and a solo. There's Ti-ra-la-la. Right. Sympathy. Forgive. Not all of the songs are, interestingly, that are from Chocolate Soldier, are just in the stage sequences. A couple of them they use elsewhere. Odd humorous number, which some of us might not feel is all that humorous, is the Searching for the Spy number. It is based on a scene from The Chocolate Soldier, but they did change it somewhat. It's an interesting troupe of sort of dancer, contortionist comedians. I feel like they just had this strange vaudeville act when they needed to do something with them, and they threw them in there. But the story, if you're familiar with the story of The Chocolate Soldier, you can definitely sort of see it being put on the stage, but then they also are being somewhat creative with it. Because they're primarily using it as the backdrop to tell this other story. Most notably, the title number, The Chocolate Soldier, is presented in this sort of Land of Sweets fantasy land, which is really not at all in accordance with the plot of The Chocolate Soldier, but it works very nicely for the number. It makes a nice MGM musical number, and there are ballerinas dancing around on point, which is nice. Yes, very excellent dancers, higher quality of dancers than you would often see in a film, especially one that's not about ballet. A lot of times it would just be, alright, they've got chorus girls and they threw pointers on them. But these people are very obviously trained, they're very good. Yes. And then besides that music, there are some opera excerpts. That's right. One of Risa Stevens' most lauded roles is the role of Dalila in Saint-Saëns, Saint-Saëns, and Dalila. So she sings the famous aria, Mon coeur s'ouvre à toi, very beautifully. Of course, in person, with a beautiful little string quartet in their parlour. And then Nelsonet and Risa Stevens both sing The Evening Star from Tannhäuser by Wagner, which is a baritone aria, but she sings it very well, as it were, and they both sing it in English. So that's a beautiful opera moment for him. He sings, in his first introduction as the Russian, The Song of the Flea. A Russian art song? Yeah, it's an aria that's not from an opera by Mussorgsky, and he sings it in Russian and he acts it out, and it's amazing. It includes this scary laughing. I think they do a really clever presentation of here's this very foreign song, there's very little chance anyone in the audience is going to speak Russian. Yeah. A combination of he's acting it out so vividly, you get the idea. And also, she doesn't speak Russian, but apparently Bernard does, so she's asking him, what's he singing about? So he tells her a little bit of the translation. I think it's a very clever way to give audiences a hint of what the song is about, because otherwise, it's still great. Obviously, it's Nelsonetti singing. What more do you need? But it's nice that they let you understand it with that. Yes, that is nice. So it's through all that music, it's such a great opportunity to see the talent of these two amazing opera singers, the one who was just a stage star and made these few movies, and the one who was really a screen star, but made rarer stage appearances. And to see the way they embodied this drama alongside some of Hollywood's greatest. The setting is interesting, because in the opening, there's like a little rhyme saying that it's in Balcony, the time we cannot fix it. And it definitely is set in some Eastern European country. Maybe Austria. They make references to Budapest, Omsk. He says he's going to Olmertz. Olmertz. I'm not 100% sure where that is. Do you know what country that city is in? I'm not sure. And it's not really important what city it is. Absolutely. They're definitely not in Budapest, because that's where she was an opera singer. But it adds to that continental European feel of the whole work. And the setting also is somewhat vague. For the most part, they're wearing late 1930s clothes. But there's a bit of a fairytale look about Risa Stevens' costumes. Right. Even outside of the work. Of course, there were a lot of very beautiful costumes in the work. But then she wears a couple of evening gowns that are more like a princess than would have really been the most popular look of the day. So I think that all adds to this operatic style. The fact that it's not too definitely tied to any time or place. I think, interestingly, when she's giving a concert at her house or when she goes out to dinner with Karl or her little housecoat around the house, those look more like, you say, late 30s or 40s. But then the evening she goes out with Vasily, she's wearing this sort of fairytale gown. So sort of going along with that whole thing is the fantasy. Like, he's playing dress-up, so so is she. I think there's sort of a tie in there. That's a good point. My dress is inspired by the one which Maria wears when she and Karl go out to dinner one evening, the first time she sees Vasily. It is a very sparkly and fancy evening gown in sort of that late 30s, early 40s style with the straight silhouette and fuller sleeves. In the play The Chocolate Soldier, Maria wears a series of beautiful costumes and gowns, many of which have a very historic look. This outfit is based on the satin gown she wears in the scene, which is supposed to be the spy number. And it appears to be a similar color to this with many different drapey jewels on it. Like many operas, this story features some very sophisticated romantic intrigues, such as suspicions of infidelity, one spouse trying to trick the other, and the question being posed, does the wife actually know that this other man is in fact her husband trying to trick her, or is she guilty of infidelity in her own heart and mind because she thinks it's another man? I think part of the reason that it's handled so well in this film is because of the time in which it was made. 1941 is right in the middle of the code era when the Motion Picture Production Code was being enforced by the Production Code Administration under Joseph Breen. And so they really cleverly let you know before the second time he calls on her that she knows it's Carl. You see her drawing on his picture, giving him a beard and dark hair. And you're going, aha, she knows. So then from that point on, she is innocent. And then you see little moments when she turns away from him and she's laughing to herself. It makes it so clever and funny. And then they can have a great time with almost excessive romantic staging, if you will, like the kissing. It's comically exaggerated. And it's funny because they are married and he's playing a joke. And so it's nothing but funny. Right. And you know, he's just going crazy. But we know she's teaching him a lesson. And we feel sorry for him. But on the other hand, we know he's ridiculous because his friend Bernard says, Carl, be romantic, be young. If you're concerned that she's not interested enough, be romantic. But instead, he just is being grumpy. And he'd rather play some character to romance her than just be romantic himself. Exactly. It's like, why don't you send her flowers and take her out to dinner and nibble on her arm? All these things he feels fine doing them as another man, but he feels sort of, I don't know, insecure in himself because he's not a tenor or not an opera singer or whatever. That's really what... Although he becomes a bass, but... Many operas feature similar scenarios and sometimes they let you know and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they'll wait a little bit longer for you to know. Or even some other films. Definitely. Sadly. And I think that operas tend to have a higher moral code, even though they have a bad reputation, or at least a sense of not showing things because of when they were written. Absolutely. Most of the great operas were written before 1900. That's very true. And obviously there was a sense of a moral code, a Christian society, there were governments and churches who would censor things. There are a lot of operas, for example, where people live together out of wedlock. One of them usually dies, the girl. So the wages of the sinner die. Exactly. But then when those same stories, or similar stories, were made into movies in the 20s and 30s, they were really risque because these morals were falling by the wayside in the post-World War I era. So then the Motion Picture Production Code came in and reminded America of the morals it had so recently cast aside. And it's very important to think when they let you know. Yeah, because if you didn't see that earlier and then just at the end she says, the audience probably wouldn't believe it any more than Carl does. She ends up convincing him by saying it was his kiss that told her. Yet we as the audience know she knew a long time before that because it was before he even came in that she was drawing the picture. First she says, And I think that's very true. Maybe if he had disguised himself as a soldier. Like in the original story, he pretends to be a Russian soldier, a guardsman. But being a singer, your voice is very recognizable. They disguise him very well. So I think it's really his beautiful singing voice that gets in the way. Although he is effecting it differently, kind of darkening it. But you know, he's not a bass. It's his beautiful warm baritone voice. So they don't tell you right away. You're not sure if she knows. That first night, sort of casual flirtation. Even through when he sends her the flowers. You're not sure. You think maybe she knows, but you're not 100% sure. But they let you know just at the right time. So you've been wondering, okay, she does know. So then we're, as the audience, comfortable with everything that happens after that. So Carl is then the only one who's uncomfortable. And it's subtly implied that this supposed affair goes all the way. But it's not in any way explicit. No, it's just very sophisticated and intelligent. And if you're a fan of classical singing or opera, you'll really enjoy this movie. If you're a fan of musical comedy, you could enjoy it. And if you're not sure you like opera or musical comedy or movie musicals, I think this is a good entry point. You'll still like it. Yeah, I think that it could make you like it by seeing that this is, it's very palatable. It's small doses of it. There's real opera alongside more operetta in English. It's fun as well as romantic and funny. So arguably more palatable than going to a three-hour opera. I'll go a step further. Even if you're one of those people who's just like, I hate musicals. This isn't like a regular musical. Or not what people's perception of musical is. They're not just randomly breaking into songs for no reason. All the singing is very in context. And they're playing singers, so it makes sense for them to be singing. So I think that this is a movie that could appeal to basically everybody. It's, you know, men, women, children. It's great. It's a very fun, funny, entertaining, and cultured musical representing that sort of pre-World War II golden age of Europe, of Austria, before the Nazis took over. That last era of gracious beauty and culture. And it couldn't be better characterized than by the great talents of Risa Stevens and Nelson Eddy. You can find this movie in a beautiful remastered black and white copy to rent or to buy on Amazon Prime Video. And it's available on some other streaming platforms as well. And you can also buy it on a nicely edited and remastered DVD from Warner Archives. Dozens upon dozens of films from the classic era on have been made about World War II. Only a couple of years ago, the huge box office hit Oppenheimer gave audiences a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the bomb that ended the war with Japan. Next time, join us as we talk about a unique film which tells the final step in this story, the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.