The Girl of the Golden West ( 1938 )

Ramerez ( Nelson Eddy ) is a carefree caballero with a tremendous sombrero on his head. Also on his head is the price of $5,000 in gold, for Ramerez is a great bandito. Along with his band of hard-riding hombres, he holds up stagecoaches and steals their passenger's gold. But he is a good man in spite of his thieving blood. Like a Robin Hood of the Wild West, Ramerez takes his portion of the gold that he steals and secretly gives it to Father Sienna to give to the poor Indians.

One day, en route to Monterey, this masked bandit holds up the stagecoach carrying Mary Robbins ( Jeannette MacDonald ) and, instantly smitten with the feisty lass, pursues her to Monterey to the governor's ball. There, incognito as Lieutenant Richard Johnson, he woos her beneath the Monterey pines with fancy words and sweet melodies. 

"I suspect you tell all your girls that their eyes are like two spoonfuls of blue Pacific." - Mary

Ramerez is playing the part of a gentleman and Mary is also playing a part. She is not the lace-and-satin lady he believes her to be, but the owner of a saloon - "The Poker". Mary is proud of her saloon and, being the only woman in the gold-mining town of Cloudee, she is beloved by all the men there, especially Sheriff Jack Rance ( Walter Pidgeon ) who intends to wed her.

When the sheriff gets wind that Ramerez is town, he sets up a trap to catch the bandit at "The Poker". This is when Mary realizes that her beloved lieutenant is none other than the infamous Ramerez and must decide whether her love for him is great enough to shield him from the law and the sheriff. 

The Girl of the Golden West was the fourth film to feature "America's Singing Sweethearts": Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald ( known as "MacEddy" to fans ). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer struck gold when they first teamed them up in the operetta Naughty Marietta in 1935. They were a dynamic duo whose on-screen personalities were a match made in heaven. They were often cast in operetta films with period settings and the Old California atmosphere of this picture suited them particularly well. 

Like many of their films, The Girl of the Golden West was based on an opera - Puccini's La Fanciulla del West which, in turn, was based on David Belasco's original play. Instead of featuring Puccini's music, MGM producers decided to hire Sigmund Romberg to write an entirely new score for the picture. Romberg had penned many popular operettas including The Student Prince, New Moon, and The Desert Song. Along with lyricist Gus Kahn, he wrote seven songs for this film: the robust "Soldiers of Fortune", the lovely ballads "Shadows on the Moon" and "The Wind in the Trees", the duets "Who Are We to Say?" and "Señorita", the grand "Mariachi" and Buddy Ebsen's solo "The West Ain't Wild Anymore". MacDonald also performs two classical pieces: "Ave Maria" and "Liebestraum". 

The Girl of the Golden West received mixed reviews at the time of its release but has since become a MacEddy classic. It is a charming mixture of romance and adventure with a touch of humor. What is especially appealing is the back history of Mary and Ramerez as children. Prior to becoming the great bandito, Ramerez was a little boy ( played by Bill Cody Jr. ) known affectionally as "Little Gringo" by his surrogate father, "The General" ( Noah Beery ). While riding with the General's gang, Little Gringo witnesses a group of settlers gathered around a campfire and hears a girl singing a song that he would never forget - "Shadows on the Moon". That girl is Mary. The long-lost love from his youth is found again...in true operetta fashion. 

Jeanette MacDonald was such a spunky actress and her character Mary is a glove-fit for her. Mary has no qualms about living by herself in a cabin in the mountains, nor does she mind being the only gal in town...on the contrary, she basks in the attention she receives from "the boys"! If such a character was portrayed in a film today, she would probably be acted out in an overly masculine fashion, but MacDonald doesn't lose any of her womanly charms in her portrayal. 

Nelson Eddy, who was often referred to as a wooden actor, was quite lively in this production and it is easy to see why Mary falls for the handsome luuuu-tenant. Eddy makes a hero out of his bandit character, just like Errol Flynn did with Robin Hood. 

The Girl of the Golden West also boasts an impressive supporting cast. Walter Pidgeon is ideal as the gamblin' Sheriff Jack Rance. He is not a bad man in any sense, yet he becomes the villain when he threatens the happiness of the two lovebirds. Leo Carillo also stars as Mosquito, Ramerez's right-hand man. H.B. Warner is the kindly Father Sienna; Buddy Ebsen has a charming part as a blacksmith smitten with "Miss Mary" and some of the bar-room boys include Bob Murphy, Cliff Edwards, Billy Bevan, and Brandon Tynan.