New Moon

New Moon is the name of two different film versions of the operetta The New Moon with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and others. The original stage version premiered on Broadway in 1928. The 1930 version of New Moon is a 1930 black-and-white American musical film, and is also known as Komissa Strogoff in Greece, Nymånen in Denmark and Passione cosacca in Italy. The 1930 film, directed by Jack Conway, starred Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett. It had an entirely different plot to the original play and is set in Russia. A 1940 film of the same name, also based on the operetta directed by Robert Z. Leonard and W. S. Van Dyke (uncredited), starred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and also reworked the plot, though it was slightly more faithful than the 1930 version. However, the music was not always presented faithfully. The 1930 version added new songs not by Romberg, and the 1940 version turns the melancholy tango number "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise", originally sung by the hero's best friend, into a cheerful little ditty sung by Eddy while he shines his shoes.