Had a lesser production company than the lofty M-G-M decided to remake this old David Belasco war-horse, they may have kept the 1910 Puccini score and would most likely have filmed on glorious locations in the Sierras. But the Culver City studios, who had purchased the property from RKO for their reigning operetta team of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, haughtily discarded Puccini in favor of below-par Sigmund Romberg and, as they were wont, filmed the entire thing on the back lot. The result suffers from both decisions. Happily, MacDonald and Eddy, augmented by Walter Pidgeon as a dashing Jack Rance, were in perfect voice and a stock company headed by a very young Buddy Ebsen, the always watchable Leo Carrillo, and a Noah Beery seemingly bent on impersonating brother Wallace in Viva Villa added the final touches to insure the expected box-office success. But it remains remarkable that M-G-M decided to rely on Belasco's theatrical sense of mise-en-scene rather than having director Robert Z. Leonard and company frolic in the mountains of nearby central California. Restored by Turner, The Girl of the Golden West has retained its original sepia tint.