Merry Widow, The

Lana Turner and Fernando Lamas star in this sumptuous Oscar -nominated musical based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar. After the King of Marshovia invites her to visit her late husband's homeland, wealthy American Crystal Radek (Turner) takes off for Paris when she discovers it's a plot to marry her off so she can pay the Marshovian debt. Followed by Count Danilo (Lamas), who's been ordered by the King to woo her, Crystal finds that she's attracted to the man although they've never been introduced. Posing as a chorus girl, Crystal quickly wins his heart, while the Count is torn between wedding a widow he doesn't know and marrying the woman he loves. A lavish Technicolor production highlighted by the "spirited singing and dancing to the lyrical Lehar tunes" (The New York Times), The Merry Widow was the last of M-G-M's three adaptations, beginning with Erich von Stroheim's 1925 silent, followed by Ernst Lubitsch's classic version in 1934.

• musical