Rose Marie
Variety Staff
Rose Marie, a perennial operetta favorite since first presented on Broadway in 1924, is dished up as a lavish CinemaScope production complete with stereophonic sound. The views of the forests, the lakes and the mountains are breathtaking. Unfortunately, operetta plot of yesteryear is sweet and occasionally sad, but with little substance.
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Variety
Rose Marie, a perennial operetta favorite since first presented on Broadway in 1924, is dished up as a lavish CinemaScope production complete with stereophonic sound. The views of the forests, the lakes and the mountains are breathtaking. Unfortunately, operetta plot of yesteryear is sweet and occasionally sad, but with little substance.

Mervyn LeRoy, who produced and directed, has fine looking leads in Ann Blyth, Howard Keel and Fernando Lamas, but they fail to instill much verve or enthusiasm to the proceedings. The bright moments of the film are offered by Marjorie Main and Bert Lahr, who provide some welcome comedy relief. Lamentably, Lahr is not given enough screen time.

Blyth is seen as the backwoods French-Canadian gal who has to choose between Howard Keel, the Mountie, and Lamas, ‘the ornery but-no-killer’ trapper. Keel magnanimously releases her from any obligations and she rides off into the woods to join Lamas.

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There is one dance production number, staged by Busby Berkeley, an Indian festival dance completely lacking in authenticity but nevertheless an effective eye-catcher.

There is a nine-minute prologue to the film, with the Metro orchestra, under the direction of symphony conductor Alfred Wallerstein, playing the Poet and Peasant overture.