Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fans: Tivo/DVR/VCR alert! Or – just watch it!

Their last film together, I Married an Angel, will screen on TCM on March 18, 2010 at 1:45 PM Eastern Time.

While general audiences didn’t know what to make of this “out there” comedy when it was first released in 1942, the sophistication goes over better today. Plus there’s awesome singing in it!

Watch for the scene early on when Jeanette MacDonald, in a homemade angel costume, hesitantly attempts to give Nelson’s character a birthday kiss. She leans forward, then Nelson Eddy the prankster crosses his eyes at her, which you can’t see. But you see her eyes following his for the moment and then she breaks character and laughs. It’s a gem…and thankfully director Woody Van Dyke left it in the film!

Nelson Eddy starred on the “Kraft Music Hall” radio series for three summers, 1947-49. For the first time, the complete series has been released on CD.

In 1947, his co-star was Nadine Conner. For the 1948 and 1949 seasons, Dorothy Kirsten took over.  For one show in 1948 Kirsten fell ill and was replaced by Jeanette MacDonald.

The “Kraft Music Hall” was a popular radio show from 1933 until Nelson Eddy‘s final show in 1949. Other hosts during the years included Paul Whiteman, Bing Crosby and Al Jolson. But by the fall of 1949, television had replaced radio in popularity.

Click here to see the entire series.