Although I love the singing of Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, their acting is too much the product of that time, affected. That is why I prefer the 1954 movie version of Rose Marie, with Oscar-winning actress Ann Blyth who has a lovely young-sounding lyric soprano in the title role. The two male leads, Howard Keel and Fernando Lamas, have always been known to be excellent singers, as far back as I can remember.
I would like to refute someone's synopsis where he says that Rose Marie and the Mountie fall in love with each other. This is not true. The Mountie (Howard Keel) falls in love with his ward, but Rose Marie's love is Jim Duval (Fernando Lamas). Rose Marie sings "Indian Love Call" and "I Have the Love" to Duval and he to her. These two songs are among the most beautiful love songs ever composed. The exuberant "Free To Be Free" accurately evokes the feeling of preferring the state of "being free." Ann Blyth sings this with just the right amount of emphatic insistence and earnestness. I would love to know where I can purchase the sheet music of these songs, or even the entire Rose Marie songbook (movie version).
I would like to refute someone's synopsis where he says that Rose Marie and the Mountie fall in love with each other. This is not true. The Mountie (Howard Keel) falls in love with his ward, but Rose Marie's love is Jim Duval (Fernando Lamas). Rose Marie sings "Indian Love Call" and "I Have the Love" to Duval and he to her. These two songs are among the most beautiful love songs ever composed. The exuberant "Free To Be Free" accurately evokes the feeling of preferring the state of "being free." Ann Blyth sings this with just the right amount of emphatic insistence and earnestness. I would love to know where I can purchase the sheet music of these songs, or even the entire Rose Marie songbook (movie version).