As described in film magazine reviews,[5] Prince Danilo meets Sally the dancer and, when he proposes marriage, his uncle, King Nikita I of Monteblanco and Queen Milena object because she is a commoner. Sally marries Baron Sadoja, an old wealthy roue who later dies from a stroke. Prince Danilo’s parents now encourage the marriage. A slurring remark is the cause of a duel between the cousins and Danilo is wounded, sacrificing his cousin whom he believes Sally loves. Crown Prince Mirko is assassinated and Danilo becomes heir to the throne. Sally visits Danilo at the hospital and asks him to marry her.
“Though Stroheim and Mae Murray hated each other, the performance which he got from her in The Merry Widow was worth everything else she ever did put together.”— Edward Wagenknecht in The Movies in the Age of Innocence (1962).[6]
The film was shot over twelve weeks with a budget of $592,000. Filming was tense as Mae Murray and the film's director, Erich von Stroheim, did not get on well. After production, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided it could no longer work with the director after he added sexually explicit scenes and changed the operetta's libretto.[7]
Reception
Upon its release, the film was both a critical and box office success. Critics praised Murray's dramatic skills while also noting that von Stroheim had "made an actress out of Miss Murray".[8] According to MGM records The Merry Widow took in approximately $1.081 million in theater rentals from the United States and Canada, an additional $852,000 from foreign rentals, and earned a profit of $758,000.[1][2][9]
Other adaptations
The Merry Widow was adapted for the screen in 1934, 1952, 1962, and 1994.
^ abcGlancy, H. Mark (1992). "MGM film grosses, 1924-1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 12 (2): 127–144. doi:10.1080/01439689200260081.
^ abcGlancy, H. Mark (1992). "Appendix". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 12 (S2): 1–20. doi:10.1080/01439689208604539.
^"New Pictures: The Merry Widow", Exhibitors Herald, 22 (8), Chicago, Illinois: Exhibitors Herald Company: 51, August 16, 1925, retrieved July 21, 2022 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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