Rose Marie

This is Hollywood's version of the Friml/Stothart/Harbach/Hammerstein operetta Rose Marie, produced 30 years from its 1924 debut. As was the usual practice, the movie producers bought a famous property and threw out a good chunk of the score. Friml was still around, so they got him to write some new tunes and Paul Francis Webster to give them lyrics. And for good measure music director George Stoll wrote a piece for Bert Lahr.

Bert Lahr in an operetta? Yes, and Marjorie Main too. Fernando Lamas and Ann Blyth are OK, but the main attraction here is Howard Keel as Mike the Mountie. I haven't seen this movie so I can't tell you who the coochie dancer is on the cover, but I suspect she is the maiden who loves Mike - or maybe it is Lamas' trapper character. I don't think it is Bert Lahr.

As far as I can tell, this record has been out of print for a long time. This is the original 10-inch album, with the exception of Ann Blyth's tunes, which had sustained groove damage on the high notes. I dubbed them from a 12-inch record with botched remastered sound, which I have tried to address.