The Merry Widow (1989)

The staff of the Paris embassy of the mythical state of Pontevedro is trying desperately to save the ailing economy of their country. Hanna, the “Merry Widow” of the title, has been left a fortune of twenty million proubles by her elderly husband, the Pontevedrian millionaire Glavari. This naturally makes her eminently marriageable, and at her entry on the scene in Paris she is followed by a host of eager French suitors.

Baron Zeta, the Pontevedrian ambassador, however, has been told by his foreign minister that the balance of payments in Pontevedro depends entirely on the Glavari fortune, and that Hanna must therefore marry a Pontevedrian. Zeta’s choice falls, not unnaturally, on the most eligible member of his staff, his first secretary, Count Danilo, whose name has been linked romantically with Hanna’s in the past.

The flames of this romance are far from dead, but Danilo (who believes that Hanna deserted him for the wealth of her elderly husband) prefers to drown his sorrows in the attractions of Paris nightlife, and any call on his sense of national duty falls on deaf ears. Besides, both he and Hanna (who, in her turn, believes that Danilo refused for reasons of snobbery to marry her himself) have their pride to look after, and cannot possibly allow themselves to capitulate to each other’s irresistible charm without a brave struggle for independence…