Ernst Lubitsch's The Merry Widow suffers from a problem I have with many early musicals: Voices, women's especially, are in operetta mode and combined with the sound recording technology of the time, make some songs difficult to latch onto. That said, I really loved this screwball musical romance. Maurice Chevalier plays a cross between Don Juan and Bugs Bunny, and he and Jeannette MacDonald have great comic chemistry. The support players aren't bad either! I laughed frequently, and the music was generally nice, with plenty of callbacks to give the piece a coherent sound. Among the musical moments are some cool ballroom sequences, adding just the right amount of spectacle to this delightful - and at times impressively saucy - piece of silliness.

Love Lubitsch's style. MacDonald is excellent in her early movies.