"While some Gilbert and Sullivan purists at the time objected to shortening of the lyrics, The Mikado was (and still is) the most elaborate of the minimal screen utilizations of G & S work. The old 3-color Technicolor is stunning, making it a must even for film buffs who don't like Gilbert and Sullivan. The film is of course also a showcase for the D'Oyle Carte Opera Company, with Kenny Baker thrown in for Hollywood box-office insurance, and pretty Jean Colin--a pleasant actress from minor British movies--added to provide the glamor that presumably the Opera Company was short on! American director Victor Schertzinger was a good and tasteful Hollywood director with some enjoyable musicals behind him, but he was neither a stylist nor an innovator; what this film sorely needs is a Rouben Mamoulian to bring it the unique welding of operetta and film that he achieved so successfully in Love Me Tonight. "In 1939, British producers...preferred to play it cautiously so as not to be caught in the middle of a major production in the event that war should arrive and shut down the British film industry. (That did in fact happen, but only briefly). Only three really big British films were made in that year: Korda's The Four Feathers, MGM's King Vidor production of The Citadel--and The Mikado." William K. Everson