New Moon (1930)

New Moon is the name of two different film versions of the operetta The New Moon with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and others. The original stage version premiered on Broadway in 1928. The 1930 version of New Moon is a 1930 black and white American musical film, and is also known as Komissa Strogoff in Greece, Nymånen in Denmark and Passione cosacca in Italy.

The 1930 film, directed by Jack Conway, starred Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett and had an entirely different plot to the original play and is set in Russia. A 1940 film of the same name, also based on the operetta directed by Robert Z. Leonard and W. S. Van Dyke (uncredited), starred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and also reworked the plot, though it was slightly more faithful than the 1930 version. However, the music was not always presented faithfully. The 1930 version added new songs not by Romberg, and the 1940 version turns the melancholy tango number "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise", originally sung by the hero's best friend, into a cheerful little ditty sung by Eddy while he shines his shoes.

Synopsis

New Moon is the name of the ship crossing the Caspian Sea. A young man named Lt. Petroff meets Princess Tanya and they have a ship-board romance. Upon arriving at the port of Krasnov, Petroff learns that Tanya is engaged to Governor Brusiloff. Petroff, disillusioned, crashes the ball to talk with Tanya. Found by Brusiloff, they invent a story about her lost bracelet. To reward him, and remove him, Brusiloff sends Petroff to the remote, and deadly, Fort Darvaz. Soon, the big battle against overwhelming odds will begin.

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