Her Majesty, Love
                   
Director: William Dieterle
Year: 1931
Rating: 5.0
There are some interesting aspects to this early talkie. It is a remake of a German film that was released in the same year directed by Joe May. May was one of the premier directors in Germany at the time and like so many of the directors, left for America when the Nazis took over. The American version came in 30-minutes shorter. It begins wonderfully - they keep the story in Berlin - and it opens with a scene in a cabaret and the customers are having a wild time with food fights, entertainment, foot-long cigarette holders, breaking into song and a beautiful bartender shaking martinis. Lia, the bartender. is played by Marilyn Miller and she has a magical smile that will make your knees buckle. Miller was a huge Broadway star in Ziegfeld musicals. Making $3,000 a week. She only performed in three films, so you are not likely to come across her. This was her last one. Tragically, she died of nasal surgery in 1936 at the age of 37. Damn, this is the third or so actor I have read about lately who died from what today would be a simple operation.



She is the martini shaking bartender and she attracts men like she is a TV with a football game on it. One of the men is Fred played by Ben Lyon. Lyon has an interesting story as well - he was a leading man in the silent era but by the mid-30s he was starting to lose that status and he and his wife Bebe Daniels - a star as well in the silents - put an act together and went to London where they were a big hit - and where they stayed throughout the war entertaining troops and having a radio show.



This has a few musical numbers and is a light romantic comedy - but after that opening scene it begins to sag. Fewer songs, fewer smiles. Her father picks it up whenever he is on the screen. It was W.C. Fields first talking feature - but he still has a moustache that he had during all of his silent films and he doesn't really have his voice down yet. It is missing the acid sarcasm that he became famous for. Of course, this was not written with him in mind. He does a little juggling though which was his skill in his vaudeville days. Fred falls in love with Lia in the same night, but he comes from a wealthy ball-bearing production family and they won't accept a bartender - and drama follows which spoiled the whole mood of the film. Directed by William Dieterle and it runs 75 minutes. Dieterle had just come from Germany which is perhaps the connection between this one and the German one. He was famous for always wearing white gloves on the set - and in one small scene Fields theatrically removes his white gloves while at the dinner table when he gets some stares.