The Lottery Bride (1930)
(Paul L. Stine, US 1930, 80 min., 35mm)
Jeanette MacDonald. One of the strangest musicals put to film, The Lottery Bride finds MacDonald starring as a young Norwegian, Jennie, who is romantically involved with Chris, but feels she must enter a dance marathon with her brother, Nels, to help him pay off his gambling debts and avoid jail time. After three and a half days, the police catch up with Nels, who runs off, and Jennie is jailed for aiding and abetting. Chris misunderstands the situation and retreats to a remote mining camp with his brother. Distraught, Jennie is released from jail and offers herself as a “lottery bride”—whoever wins her ticket, wins Jennie. In a demonstration of fate in action, Chris chooses Jennie’s ticket, but gives it to his brother instead. The situation continues to get stranger with Italian romantic rivals, dirigibles, and sled dogs. Joe E. Brown and Zasu Pitts would steal the show as a bandleader and a saloonkeeper, if not for the over-the-top ending shot in two-strip Technicolor.