VHS Chocolate Soldier
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MGM/UA Home Video's clamshell release of "The Chocolate Soldier" brings the 1941 operetta adaptation to tape, pairing Nelson Eddy and Risë Stevens in one of the studio's more underplayed romantic pairings from the golden era of the Hollywood musical. The cover art does the film justice: Eddy in full military dress, Stevens in bridal white against that warm gold-toned background MGM/UA used across its prestige catalog releases. One-of-one copy, here now at Keep It Classic.
"The Chocolate Soldier" adapts Oscar Straus's 1908 operetta by way of Ferenc Molnár's "The Guardsman," which MGM had already filmed as a straight drama in 1931 with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The 1941 version leans into the music and the comic pretense at its core: a husband in disguise trying to test his wife's fidelity, played entirely for operatic charm. Eddy and Stevens were a deliberate counter-program to the Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy cycle that had dominated the genre since "Naughty Marietta" in 1935. Stevens brought a Metropolitan Opera pedigree to a Hollywood still figuring out what to do with trained classical voices. The MGM/UA home video line brought this tier of the catalog to tape through the 1980s and into the 1990s, making films that had largely lived in revival houses and repertory schedules accessible to collectors working through the full studio library.
The last full-budget operetta MGM produced before the war effort redirected the studio.
The clamshell case is the format MGM/UA used for its classic titles before the industry standardized on cardboard slipcase packaging. Condition on this copy reads solid from the exterior: the gold tone on the cover holds without significant fading. The tape mechanism and ribbon condition are the unknowns, as they are on any VHS pushing 30-plus years. For display, the clamshell spine is the thing to look at first, since MGM/UA spine text on these releases is often the clearest single indicator of which pressing run you have in hand.
OWNER VERIFY: MGM/UA Home Video pressing run and release year for this specific clamshell edition.
The last full-budget operetta MGM produced before the war effort redirected the studio.
The Rental Counter
Before streaming flattened the difference between movies, VHS was a physical act. Rentals, buybacks, Blockbuster sleeves, promo tapes, ex-rentals with security stickers still on the side. 90s tapes outlived the stores they came from. We keep them in their original cases where possible and note every sticker, sun-fade, and sleeve crease in the photography.
INSPECTED IN STORE / 707 E FREMONT, LAS VEGAS
Inspected in Las Vegas on June 2026. Each piece is a single unit, sold as inspected.
KEEP IT CLASSIC
This vhs chocolate soldier originates from the 90s era[01], represents MGM[02]'s output, . Each piece in the shop is a single unit, inspected by hand in Las Vegas before listing. The data manifest to the right records the fields on file for this lot; where a field is empty it has been omitted rather than guessed.
INSPECTED IN STORE / 707 E FREMONT, LAS VEGAS
- VENDOR
- MGM
- ERA
- 90s
Great night. Thank you for the hospitality while it was pouring down raining and the game was on pause.
14 days from delivery. Buyer pays return shipping. In-store purchases are exchange or credit only.
Every piece in the shop is a single unit. Once it is gone, it is gone.
707 E Fremont Street, Suite 1170, ground floor, east side of Downtown Container Park.
