Love Me Tonight (1932)

The best movie musical you've never heard of is Love Me Tonight, a deliciously clever 1932 Rodgers and Hart romp. The film opens with a tour de force, as the rhythmic sounds of a Paris morning morph into music and we meet a humble tailor (Maurice Chevalier) whose future looks bright. At least he thinks so. And then the great song "Isn't It Romantic?" kicks in, introduced by Chevalier but immediately handed off to client, cab driver, and a series of tune-carriers who finally bring the catchy melody to a dreamy princess (Jeannette MacDonald). It's probably the giddiest sequence in a very fun film, and "Isn't It Romantic?" would continue popping up in Paramount movies for years (Billy Wilder was especially partial to it). The humble tailor must travel to the princess's chateau to collect a bill from family playboy Charlie Ruggles, which puts Chevalier in pleasant proximity to MacDonald and saucy Myrna Loy. It also brings forth more Rodgers and Hart goodies: the classic "Lover" (a great romantic waltz played here as a lark), "Mimi," and the title song. Rouben Mamoulian directed, in the full stride of his early-sound creativity (this was just after his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), using a variety of effects that look positively New Wave. Chevalier and MacDonald are a delight together (by all means see them in The Love Parade and One Hour with You, too), and Charlie Butterworth has some glorious moments as a prospective MacDonald suitor. Also worth the price of admission: the spectacle of crusty character actor C. Aubrey Smith singing. --Robert Horton Amazon.com

The best Lubitsch film which is not directed by Lubitsch!

If somebody wants to find out how popular music and moving images go together to become a great work of art - study this film!
The bonus features are great, the transfer of the film itself seems to have caused some problems. Fast camera movements look a bit bumpy here. Certainly not on a 35mm print! Anyway - this DVD is one of the most important releases and worth its prize! May 27, 2008

Not outdated at all!

This movie, old as it is, is not outdated at all! Enjoyed it very much. Only wish it have English subtiltes for those of us who are hard of hearing. Maurice Chevalier is wonderful! I wish they have more of his early novies on DVD. I rate this movie very high, it is that good! June 27, 2007

Funny, charming -- and a stylistic breakthrough

So I'm watching "Dreamgirls" --- well, sort of watching; the screen is blurred by my tears of joy at the mere existence of such a dazzling achievement. And I'm thinking that it's ever so slightly familiar.

It's not the theme, though this is hardly the first film to show how original art is watered down so it can thrill a mass audience.

It's not the music, which starts as strong soul, transits through powerful R&B and ends up as a homogenized vehicle for a star who is, by now, just "passing" as a black woman.

Ah! It's the way the story is told, a quasi-operatic style in which dialogue segues into song --- and instead of talking to one another, characters sing their thoughts back and forth.

And then, because although I have trouble remembering last week, I'm strong on old movies, I got it: "Dreamgirls" is cousin to "Love Me Tonight," a 1932 musical by Rouben Mamoulian.

You may never have heard of this film. Blame that on television, which long ago turned away from late-night broadcasts of black-and-white classics. Had "Love Me Tonight" been on and had you seen the opening sequence, you would have been hooked --- it's that rare combination: great originality and total fun.

We're in Paris. Early morning, as the city awakes. A workman shows up with a pick and starts chipping away at the pavement. Another sweeps. A knife sharpener puts an edge on the first blade of the day. Two cobblers take seats outside their shop and hammer at heels. A woman beats a carpet.

It's pure rhythm --- street sound as melody. And it's just a little too much for young Maurice Chevalier, who shuts his window, finishes dressing and heads downstairs. But hey, he's Maurice Chevalier; as he walks down the street, he sings to his neighbors. And they sing back to him.

Time to get serious: Maurice is a tailor. A good one. And, he thinks, a lucky one --- he has just made 15 suits for Vicomte Gilbert de Vareze, the most fashionable man in Paris. His future is assured.

You know the punch line: The Vicomte is a penniless deadbeat who has stiffed every tradesman on the block. He lives off crumbs from his disapproving uncle, the Duke d'Artelines. So Maurice charges off to the Duke's chateau to extract payment.

On the way, he meets Jeannette MacDonald, and falls instantly in love. Once at the chateau, there is the inevitable confusion about Maurice's identity --- the last thing the Vicomte wants his uncle to know is that a tailor has come to collect a small fortune --- and Maurice gets the chance to try his charm on MacDonald, who it turns out, is a widow.

Not just any widow. A widow who feels she is, at 21, "wasting away." Her doctor, with an eye on her breasts, disagrees. His diagnosis: She's "being wasted."

Throughout, the dialogue is brisk and racy:

Jeanette: What are you doing now?
Maurice: I'm thinking. I'm thinking of you without these clothes.
Jeanette: Open your eyes at once!
Maurice: Oh no, pardon, madam. With different clothes. Smart clothes.

No wonder the censors snipped some 15 minutes from the film.

The music is by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. It includes such classics as "Isn't It Romantic?" and is, as the opening sequence suggests, integral to the film. But let Mamoulian explain: "I decided to make the movie lyrical, thoroughly stylized: a film in which the whole action of actors, as well as the movement of camera and cutting was rhythmic. Then I got Rodgers and Hart to write the music....We finished the whole score before I began to work on the script. We did the whole thing to a metronome, because we couldn't carry an orchestra round with us."

Mistaken identity. Stars at their zenith. Classic songs. Double entendres galore. Even a happy ending: "Once upon a time there was a princess and a prince charming...who was not a prince but who was charming...and they lived happily ever after."

If you have any weakness for old movies, don't miss "Love Me Tonight." January 10, 2007

A Landmark Musical

Another perfect film is now readily available on DVD. This film is widely recognised as one of the best musicals ever. It combines a superb Rodgers and Hart score with the subtle sexy humour of Ernst Lubitsch and the visual flair which Rouben Mamoulian, the director, brought to so many of his films.

Maurice Chevalier plays a tailor who meets princess Jeanette MacDonald when he visits her castle to collect outstanding debts from Charlie Ruggles. Macdonald is a widow who keeps fainting not from "wasting away" as the doctor diagnoses, but "being wasted". Macdonald falls for Chevalier and after a few plot devices which will keep them apart because he is a commoner, they reunite to live happily ever after. If the story sounds like a fairy tale, it is but that does not detract from the enchantment of the piece.

Chevalier plays his usual charming self and Macdonald is sexy and funny in a way she rarely showed with Nelson Eddy. Myrna Loy is ravishing as her nymphomaniac cousin and this comes as a surprise to those who know her as the perfect wife. All of the supporting cast are memorable though Charlie Ruggles steals every scene in which he appears.

The score includes the incomparable "Mimi", "Lover" and "Isn't it Romantic". The commentary by Miles Kreuger is outstanding, avoiding mere biographical details and really giving us insight into the relevance of this film in 1932 and why it still stands up today. There is a lot of information about what was cut from the film when it was reissued, cuts which have been lost for ever at this date. The DVD print is excellent but there is quite a bit of background surface noise at times which can be distracting. February 1, 2006

exquisite and very funny........

If you haven't seen "Love Me Tonight," or are not familiar with it, I definitely reccomend that you check it out. This is a great example of the brilliance of the collaboration of Richard Rogers (songwriter) and Lorenz Hart (lyricist). Not only is the music witty, biting and intelligent (and has stood the test of time today), full of innuendo and pointed jabs at the hang-ups of society and the class system, but the whole film succeeds as a musical, comedy, love story and social commentary.

Maurice (Maurice Chevalier) is a Parisian tailor dripping with charm, wit and a true "joie de vivre" (joy for life). He is truly content to make suits for his customers, flirt with pretty mademoiselles and muse on his future--ideally with a wife and a pack of children on the way. It is when one of his royal customers (Charles Ruggles) stiffs him on the payment of fifteen suits that he decides to seek redemption and payment for his merchandise. It is on his journey to the chateau of this customer, that he encounter the beautiful Princess Jeanette (Jeanette McDonald), a 22 year old young lady wasting away in her tower, awaiting the arrival of Prince Charming.

This musical combines racy, pre-censorship code humor, hysterical musical numbers comparable to up-tempo comedic operatic arias, and cutting edge camera tricks (slow motion, zoom lense, etc.) that were years ahead of its time. You can tell that the young Maurice Chevalier was getting a kick out of hamming it up for the cameras, as a true, romantic Frenchman, in love with love. I will honestly be surprised if you don't get swept up in his infectious warmth or the irrerepressible charm of this great, underappreciated little masterpiece...... November 21, 2005

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