Film

The Firefly

A Jeanette MacDonald musical-spy thriller set during the Napoleonic Wars, where a Spanish singing spy tangles with a French officer who may be exactly what he claims—or the last person she can trust. It's a vehicle for MacDonald's voice and charm, all intrigue and romance scored to operetta numbers. Built for audiences who want plot with their arias.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love old-fashioned operetta where the songs carry the romance and the spy games stay playful, and you don't mind a plot that runs on disguise and romantic deception.

Skip it if a restless viewer will find the stagy courtship, frequent songs and 131 minutes padded, the romance more ornament than engine.

What it asks of you: Its pace is unhurried and its mood floats between swoon and frolic, with song breaking up the scenes often enough that you'll need patience for it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Rose Marie1936

MacDonald and Nelson Eddy's first pairing is a perfect entry point: gorgeous voices, genuine chemistry, and a straightforward adventure plot that doesn't fight the music. Eddy is an American Mountie; MacDonald falls for him while fleeing scandal in Paris.

But The story is thinner than tissue paper and the pacing can feel glacial if you're not already in love with operetta-style singing.

Rose Marie poster

San Francisco1936

MacDonald gets more dramatic material here, playing a cabaret performer during the 1906 earthquake alongside Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. The spectacle is genuinely awe-striking and the cast elevates every moment.

But It's a disaster film that asks you to care about romance while the city burns. Some viewers find the tonal shifts jarring.

San Francisco poster

Naughty Marietta1935

MacDonald and Eddy's screen chemistry is incendiary here, and Victor Herbert's score is genuinely gorgeous. It's frothy and fun—a French countess posing as a maid in colonial New Orleans, with enough plot twists to keep you invested.

But The racial attitudes baked into the 1935 setting are difficult. The plot also depends on characters making decisions that don't survive scrutiny.

Naughty Marietta poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Firefly

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Phantom of the Opera1943

Both spy stories trade in deception and hidden identity, but where *The Firefly* plays that game lightly, *Phantom* uses it to explore obsession and the danger of secrecy. Same engine, utterly different register.

Claude Rains and Susanna Foster in the only colour version of this opera house tale—and it's stunning. It takes the music seriously as music, not as set dressing, and the Gothic atmosphere is genuinely dark.

But The Lon Chaney version overshadows it in memory, and this one's pacing is slow. Some find Foster's soprano thin compared to MacDonald's.

Phantom of the Opera poster
More like this (7)

The Great Ziegfeld1936

A sprawling, ornate backstage epic with multiple musical numbers that feel less like interruptions and more like the whole point. William Powell is magnetic as Ziegfeld, and the production design is staggering.

But At 183 minutes it can feel indulgent, and the plot—Ziegfeld's rise and romantic entanglements—is secondary to the spectacle.

The Great Ziegfeld poster

Follow the Fleet1936

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to Irving Berlin is worth your evening on principle. The story about sailors on shore leave is an excuse for spectacular musical numbers and genuine romantic tension.

But If tap dancing and 1930s musical comedy don't excite you, the plot won't carry you. It's slight.

Follow the Fleet poster

Showboat

Irene Dunne and Allan Jones again—and Jones gets to show real dramatic chops alongside the singing. Jerome Kern's music is superb, and the Mississippi setting gives the operetta something to breathe into.

But The treatment of race is period-typical and deeply uncomfortable. The second half slogs.

The Great Victor Herbert1939

A musical biography that actually trusts you to care about its subject. Walter Connolly as the composer is dignified and warm, and the parade of Herbert's own melodies is a gift for anyone who loves the form.

But Biopics can flatten their subjects into virtue. This one occasionally forgets that Herbert was a complicated man with real failures.

The Great Victor Herbert poster

Maytime1937

MacDonald and Eddy's most ambitious collaboration: two acts set in different eras, rich orchestration, and a fatalistic romantic tragedy that actually earns its weight. The final scenes are genuinely moving.

But It's emotionally heavy in ways the plot sometimes can't support. Some viewers find the flashback structure confusing.

Maytime poster

Espionage1937

Both navigate wartime espionage during the Napoleonic period, but *Espionage* trusts pure plot and tension where *The Firefly* hedges its bets with sentiment. A useful extreme on the same spectrum.

Made in the same year as *The Firefly*, this straightforward spy thriller with Harvey Stephens has none of the music but all of the genuine suspense. No songs means the plot has to land harder—and it does.

But If you came for the operetta numbers, losing them entirely will feel like a betrayal. It's also less polished than the MacDonald vehicles.

Espionage poster

Foolish Wives1922

Both are romances built on elaborate deception and the Riviera-adjacent milieu, but *Foolish Wives* is a cautionary tale about seduction where *The Firefly* is a lark. It's what happens when the game stops being fun—the opposite moral register entirely.

Erich von Stroheim's silent masterpiece about a fake count seducing women in Monte Carlo. It's shot in 35mm with stunning composition, and Stroheim's performance is baroque and hypnotic. The decadence is intoxicating.

But It's a 1922 silent film. That alone disqualifies it for many viewers. It's also long, and its attitudes toward sex and morality are alien to modern sensibilities.

Foolish Wives poster

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Recommended by

Anna Karenina, Bitter Sweet, Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie, The Great Victor Herbert, The Cat and the Fiddle