Monte Carlo (1930 film)

Monte Carlo
theatrical poster
Directed by	Ernst Lubitsch
Produced by	Ernst Lubitsch
Written by	Ernest Vajda Hans Müller-Einigen Booth Tarkington Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland
Starring	Jack Buchanan Jeanette MacDonald Claud Allister
Music by	W. Franke Harling
Cinematography	Victor Milner
Edited by	Merrill G. White
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 27, 1930 (1930-08-27)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Monte Carlo is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It stars Jeanette MacDonald as Countess Helene Mara. The film is notable for the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon", which was written for the film and was performed by Jeanette MacDonald. The film was also hailed by critics as a masterpiece of the newly emerging musical genre. The screenplay was based on the Booth Tarkington novel Monsieur Beaucaire.

Countess Helene Mara is engaged to be married to Prince Otto Von Liebenheim but leaves him at the altar. She flees on a train to Monte Carlo and checks into a hotel. When she arrives at the casino a count named Rudolph Falliere takes a liking to her and poses as a hairdresser whom she hires and falls in love with but could not marry if he is a commoner. Her fiance later arrives and takes her to an opera and she sees Rudolph there in one of the expensive seats indicating he is too wealthy to be a hairdresser. When he reveals to her that he is a count, she realises she can marry him.

The songs in the film were written by Richard Whiting and W. Franke Harling, with uncredited music by Karl Hajos, Herman Hand, Sigmund Krumgold, and John Leipold. The best-known song in the film is "Beyond the Blue Horizon" by Richard A. Whiting and W. Franke Harling with lyrics by Leo Robin. The song became an immediate hit record for Jeanette MacDonald on the film's release and again in the 1970s when it was covered by Lou Christie.

Other songs in the film are: