"Her Majesty, Love" was Marilyn Miller's last chance at film fame but unfortunately it was not to be. She had come to the movies with a lot of fanfare, being the most dazzling star on Broadway during the 1920s, and her first film, an adaptation of her greatest stage success "Sally, didn't disappoint. Her next film "Sunny" was a different story, being in black and white and shorn of most of the songs that had made it so beloved on stage. It was made in the days when people were starting to stay away from musicals.
"Her Majesty, Love" wasn't based on an old silent but on a frothy German comedy from the same year (1931). I haven't seen this particular movie but I have seen a couple of films with the star, Kathe von Nagy and she had a bright and bubbly personality. The atmosphere of the Berlin cabaret is captured to perfection in the opening scenes as Lia (Marilyn Miller) and her "bar buddies" sing "You're Baby Minded Now". Along comes Fred (Ben Lyon, a former boyfriend of Marilyn Miller) singing "Because of You" and hoping he can thaw Lia's icy demeanor - he wants to dance, she wants a wedding ring. Singer Donald Novis furthers the narrative with "Don't Ever Be Blue".
Fred is the black sheep of a family of industrialists, the board of directors is composed of elderly relatives, including a lively Count (Leon Errol) who thinks Lia is a real woman and would jump at the chance to marry her. He soon gets his chance. Fred has proposed to Lia but when his stuffy brother (Ford Sterling) offers him a directorship and 10,000 marks a month on condition that he calls off his engagement he reluctantly agrees.
If people went to the cinema hoping to see a Marilyn Miller spectacular, they went home disappointed. Not only were all the songs sung within the first 20 minutes, the only time Marilyn got to dance was in a pretty uninspired tango ("Though You're Not the First One") with Ben Lyon. Maybe the fact that she injured her knee during rehearsals, accounted for her lack of dancing in the movie. The only reason this movie is remembered today is for W.C. Field's clowning - and even he was kept on a leash!! He and Miller had been in the Ziegfeld Follies together and when they bumped into each other in Hollywood she asked him if he would play her father in an upcoming film. He apparently said "Not only your father, but your grandfather as well"!! He was still wearing the clip on moustache from his vaudeville days and was able to re-create his juggling act that had made his name decades before. In my opinion it is the best part of the movie. Apparently he earned the best notices as well, although critics didn't fault any of the actors so much as the slight story. After this movie Warner Bros. and Marilyn Miller parted company, Marilyn to go back to Broadway where she wowed audiences with "As Thousands Cheer".
"Her Majesty, Love" wasn't based on an old silent but on a frothy German comedy from the same year (1931). I haven't seen this particular movie but I have seen a couple of films with the star, Kathe von Nagy and she had a bright and bubbly personality. The atmosphere of the Berlin cabaret is captured to perfection in the opening scenes as Lia (Marilyn Miller) and her "bar buddies" sing "You're Baby Minded Now". Along comes Fred (Ben Lyon, a former boyfriend of Marilyn Miller) singing "Because of You" and hoping he can thaw Lia's icy demeanor - he wants to dance, she wants a wedding ring. Singer Donald Novis furthers the narrative with "Don't Ever Be Blue".
Fred is the black sheep of a family of industrialists, the board of directors is composed of elderly relatives, including a lively Count (Leon Errol) who thinks Lia is a real woman and would jump at the chance to marry her. He soon gets his chance. Fred has proposed to Lia but when his stuffy brother (Ford Sterling) offers him a directorship and 10,000 marks a month on condition that he calls off his engagement he reluctantly agrees.
If people went to the cinema hoping to see a Marilyn Miller spectacular, they went home disappointed. Not only were all the songs sung within the first 20 minutes, the only time Marilyn got to dance was in a pretty uninspired tango ("Though You're Not the First One") with Ben Lyon. Maybe the fact that she injured her knee during rehearsals, accounted for her lack of dancing in the movie. The only reason this movie is remembered today is for W.C. Field's clowning - and even he was kept on a leash!! He and Miller had been in the Ziegfeld Follies together and when they bumped into each other in Hollywood she asked him if he would play her father in an upcoming film. He apparently said "Not only your father, but your grandfather as well"!! He was still wearing the clip on moustache from his vaudeville days and was able to re-create his juggling act that had made his name decades before. In my opinion it is the best part of the movie. Apparently he earned the best notices as well, although critics didn't fault any of the actors so much as the slight story. After this movie Warner Bros. and Marilyn Miller parted company, Marilyn to go back to Broadway where she wowed audiences with "As Thousands Cheer".