Musical Monday: Montana Moon (1930)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Montana Moon (1930) – Musical #851

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Malcolm St. Clair

Starring:
Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown (billed as John Mack Brown), Dorothy Sebastian, Ricardo Cortez, Benny Rubin, Cliff Edwards, Karl Dane, Lloyd Ingraham, Mary Carlisle (uncredited), Claudia Dell (uncredited)

Plot:
Joan Prescott (Crawford) is a wealthy party girl, whose father (Ingraham) is a cattle rancher in Montana. While on a train trip with the family’s guests, Joan’s sister, Lizzie (Sebastian), confides that she’s in love with Jeff Pelham (Cortez) and asks her sister not to steal this boyfriend, as she has with many others. When Joan realizes Jeff is interested, she hops off the train to help out her sister and meets cowboy Larry Kerrigan (Brown). After a whirlwind romance, Joan brings Larry to meet her rich family and society friends and the two quickly realize Larry doesn’t fit in.

Trivia:
• Considered to be the first talking musical western film.
• Joan Crawford’s second talking picture.
• Filmed on location in Montana
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also filmed a silent version of the film

Highlights:
• Joan Crawford singing

Notable Songs:
• “The Moon is Low” performed by Joan Crawford, reprised by Cliff Edwars and the cowboy chorus
• “Happy Cowboy” performed by the cowboy chorus
• “Let Me Give You Love” performed by Joan Crawford
• “Trailin’ in Old Montana” performed by Cliff Edwards

Johnny Mack Brown and Joan Crawford

My review:
Throughout her career, Joan Crawford reinvented herself with each decade. The Joan Crawford of THE WOMEN (1939), MILDRED PIERCE (1945) to THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO (1957) are all quite different points in her career where her appearance and characters vary.

The version of Joan Crawford in this week’s Musical Monday, MONTANA MOON (1930), is one that is often overlooked or even forgotten by mainstream audiences. This youthful, flapper version of Crawford is overshadowed by later versions of herself that are depicted in melodramas, film noirs or tell-all books.

When her career started, Crawford was dubbed “the personification of youth.” She danced, drank and sometimes sang in these early films. MONTANA MOON was not only her second talking picture, but is also considered to be the first musical western, or singing cowboy, film.

In MONTANA MOON, Joan Crawford plays Joan Prescott is a wealthy party girl, whose father (Ingraham) is a cattle rancher in Montana. While on a train trip with the family’s guests, Joan’s sister, Lizzie (Dorothy Sebastian), confides that she’s in love with Jeff Pelham (Ricardo Cortez) and asks her sister not to steal this boyfriend, as she has with many others. When Joan realizes Jeff is interested, she hops off the train to help out her sister and meets cowboy Larry Kerrigan (Johnny Mack Brown). After a whirlwind romance, Joan brings Larry to meet her rich family and society friends and the two quickly realize Larry doesn’t fit in.

It’s true, MONTANA MOON isn’t the best musical, or even the best singing cowboy film, but I think it’s a great time and quite delightful, and it has an excellent cast.

For starters, Crawford is so much fun in this film. She’s fresh and fun and does well playing the party girl. But the biggest surprise to some viewers is that Crawford isn’t a bad singer. When MONTANA MOON was released, it wasn’t the first time audiences heard Crawford sing. She performed a number in HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929.

I always love seeing Johnny Mack Brown in films and have a great soft spot for him. Football player-turned actor, Brown is from Dothan, Ala., where I lived for a few years as a child. Brown’s southern accent is in full display in this film, where he plays an “aw shucks” cowboy who falls for Crawford’s wealthy character. He’s adorable in the film, and sympathetic when he finds himself in “fish out of water” situations. The only drawn back that our lead cowboy doesn’t sing in this singing cowboy musical.

Instead, we hear an MGM chorus of cowboys and singer, Cliff Edwards, who many today may know as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the 1940 Disney film, PINOCCHIO. Though Edwards gets a few fun comedic scenes with comedian Benny Rubin, we don’t hear Edwards sing as often as I’d like.

In true Pre-Code fashion, this film co-stars Ricardo Cortez who plays his usual cad. Though his role isn’t large, he’s effectively lecherous. It’s always wonderful to see underrated Dorothy Sebastian in the film, though her role as Crawford’s sister isn’t very large either.
I also enjoy Lloyd Ingraham in the film, who plays the father of Crawford and Sebastian. I enjoy in films when the rich father is part of the plot to outsmart their spoiled children.

The only other downside to MONTANA MOON (1930) is that the censors apparently edited the film to the hilt, and since it was shot on location in Montana, director Malcolm St. Clair wasn’t able to re-shoot any of the Montana scenes. Scenes cut included jokes before Joan and Larry’s wedding night and any scenes that showed characters drinking alcohol, since the United States was in prohibition. Though I enjoy the film as it is, it’d be interesting to have been able to see this as it was meant to be seen.

Though it’s not well-known in the filmography of any of it’s leads, I really enjoy MONTANA MOON. It makes me want to go be a cowboy in Montana and ride off into the sunset. And thankfully, this film is easy to enjoy on several streaming platforms (a rarity for classic films) so you too can feel this way.

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