The Chocolate Soldier

The opening panel reads: "This story takes place in Balkany. The time we cannot fix it. When Russians Prussians Turks and Czechs were reticent to mix it." Karl Lang (Nelson Eddy) and Maria Lanyi (Rise Stevens) are not only successful opera stars, they have also recently been married. However, both suffer pangs of jealousy where the other is concerned, since both receive quite a bit of attention from members of the opposite sex. Karl's jealousy is heightened, however, when Maria tells him that she intends to leave their current musical comedy career and seek a career in opera. Karl sees it as a pretext to spend more time away from him. In order to test his jealous suspicions, Karl hatches a plan to impersonate a Russian singer, Vassily Vassilievitch, and romance Maria in that guise. The plan goes awry, however, when Maria seemingly begins to respond to Vassily's advances. Unknown to Karl, Maria has seen through his impersonation and is thrilled that her husband would go to such lengths for her attention. Even the couple's dog sees through Karl's disguise. When events come to a head with an on-stage confrontation between a disguised Karl and Maria, she reveals her knowledge all along that Vassily was really Karl, and the two live happily ever after, except, of course, for Maria's continued flirtations.