New Moon (DVD), Warner Archives, Drama

For the first film adaptation of the Broadway smash operetta New Moon, M-G-M transplanted the action from Louisiana to Czarist Russia, but wisely brought in two luminaries from the Metropolitan Opera, Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore, to play star-crossed lovers Lieutenant Michael Petroff and Princess Tanya Strogoff. The couple's shipboard romance aboard the liner New Moon hits a rough patch once they're on land, thanks to Tanya's loveless engagement to Boris Brusiloff (Adolphe Menjou), the ruthless governor of the port of Krasnov. Brusiloff discovers Tanya and Michael together at a party in his mansion and assigns the lieutenant command of the notoriously deadly Fort Davaz, where Michael is certain to meet his doom at either the hands of the warring Turkomen or his own soldiers. Tibbett and Moore's extraordinary gifts bring Sigmund Romberg's soaring score to life while peppering the proceedings with decidedly pre-Code innuendo.