One Night of Love [1934] [DVD]

This is the hit movie that made a movie star out of the diva Grace Moore, and brought opera to a wide film-going public. Somewhat mirroring her own career, it told of an American soprano who studies in Italy and wins fame at the Met.

After being turned down by MGM for The Merry Widow (1934), because she was considered too fat, Moore slimmed down and was signed with Columbia for this first (and best) of five deliriously silly, well-mounted and tuneful operettas she made for the studio. (Moore was killed in a plane crash in 1947.)

The director Victor Schertzinger, an accomplished musician, co-wrote the title song, which Moore sang among four operatic arias.