HeadlinesExotic Boring

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

chaos-rampant Watch this once straight through because it is a lot of fun, as cinematic operettas go, you'll be hard pressed to find more airy and smart, maybe Lubitsch.Watch it the second time to see how the narrative is so nicely stitched. The lovable rascal is a French tailor—accidentally enmeshed in aristocratic life when he goes to ask for his money. Disguised as a baron, he falls for the uptight princess. Meanwhile, she complains to the family doctor that she's not feeling well—we understand it's nothing a good night of sex won't fix.Myrna Loy is the nymphomaniac cousin of the princess, all the amoral qualities of what the heroine is feeling cast off as a separate character. When the two of them appear together in a ball looking radiant in resplendent dresses, Myrna steals the show in her seductive all black. Of course our guy goes for pure at heart and all is well.Before that, there is a marvelous scene where he measures the princess up for a new dress, in contemporary times the scene would be more risqué, some nudity involved. At any rate, the point is that she bares herself for him. He prepares a marvelous outfit, which gets her thinking that this man knows too much about 'measuring women', which leads to the anticipated exposing climax.Three old (sexless) spinsters set all of this up, sewing all through the movie— Macbeth's three crones of fate in a different light. Clothes. Disguised sex. Sewing as narrative about the work of love. Hidden selves exposed.In the end, the three spinsters hold up the finished article they had been patiently weaving all through the film, an embroidery showing an idealized scene of courting in a way inspired by the plot yet going against the reality of what we saw—in reality, the princess chased after him, riding a horse and defiantly stopping a train to get her man. Her imposing image as she does that is straight out of Pudovkin and his stout Soviet heroines. Look for the same Soviet influence in the opening scene with the town waking up to mechanical sounds, a great piece.

writers_reign This film is so good that even Jeannette MacDonald can't spoil it and that's saying something. Usually I can take or leave Chevalier, mostly leave, but here he is at least bearable. Busby Berkley gets a lot of credit for staging musicals but Rouben Mamoulian, who got there first, is no slouch if anybody asks you. The film begins BRILLIANTLY with a first a completely Silent track then slowly, imperceptibly, as Paris wakes up sounds begin to insinuate themselves in Rhythm. Soon Chevalier enters the scene and both walks through and contributes to the sound and in under five minutes he is established as a tailor and one who has been stiffed by a viscount (Charlie Ruggles) thus kick-starting a plot which sees Chevalier journey to Ruggles' château. The transition is handled equally brilliantly as Chevalier, in his shop, begins to sing Isn't It Romantic, which is taken up by a delivery man and various pedestrians until it arrives at the train which will whisk Chevalier to the château and a meet-cute with MacDonald. It's a great cast, Myrna Loy, Elizabeth Patterson, C. Aubrey Smith, Charlie Ruggles, Charles Butterworth. Oh, I nearly forget. There's also a gem of a score by Rodgers and Hart. A true classic.

The Great Tanuki For what it is worth, here is a bit of "Americana". I found a letter from my father to my mother written on September 11, 1932 ,(nine years before they were married, by the way). In it he mentioned having gone to see this film. His review is as follows..."I went to see Maurice Chevalier tonight in his latest, 'Love Me Tonight'. Say, I have more technique than that guy, any night. He is losing all he had, can I give him pointers?".I had to correct some spellings errors in the quote, otherwise IMDb wouldn't accept it. Pity. That way it loses a bit of the flavor and intention of a "Quote"I take it that my Dad liked the movie.

bkoganbing There have been better film directors than Rouben Mamoulian and better stage directors as well. But no one has yet mastered both of those mediums so much so that his services to helm a project was in demand consistently in Broadway and Hollywood. Mamoulian certainly has his share of duds on both coasts, but he has his share of classics as well and none is more classic than Love Me Tonight.Love Me Tonight is the third and best collaboration with leads Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Chevalier is but a poor tailor, the best at his craft who's just completed a big order for a rakish nobleman played by Charlie Ruggles. Ruggles is also a deadbeat who's stiffed half the merchants of Paris and they've appointed Chevalier a committee of one to settle the accounts. Off goes Chevalier to the countryside to get Ruggles to cough up.Ruggles is mooching off his titled uncle C. Aubrey Smith and while nobility has been formally abolished in France, it's still held in regard in class conscious Europe. When Maurice gets to Smith's palatial digs, he also finds another cousin in Jeanette MacDonald and she falls big for him of course. And Ruggles not wanting to seem more of a deadbeat and a moocher than C. Aubrey Smith already thinks he is, introduces Chevalier as another titled fellow.Two other main characters get into this mix. Charles Butterworth who is also a titled person and would like to marry Jeanette. Of course Butterworth isn't her romantic ideal, like he'd be anybody's. And Jeanette has a lady in waiting in Myrna Loy who's also got her eye on Maurice.There are many who consider this the best musical ever made. It certainly was years ahead of its time. In fact Maurice and Jeanette were fortunate to also have Ernst Lubitsch directing their other features because they too were considered way ahead of their time and helped their careers along immensely.One reason for the success of Love Me Tonight is the score written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, probably their best film score. When you've got such classics as Isn't It Romantic, Lover, and Mimi all in the same film, you can't miss.One should also hear Chevalier's RCA recording of Mimi. It was one of the staple songs of his career. The record however has an interlude as Maurice reminisces about all the other girls he's sung about like Louise, Valentina, Mitzi, and his fabulous Love Parade. But no doubt about it, Mimi tops them all. I wish he could have used those lyrics in the film.As for Lover this is a case of a hit song becoming far bigger in revival. Jeanette sings it on screen, but I would safely venture that more people identify the song with Peggy Lee and hit record she made of it in the Fifties. In fact a lot of her contemporaries also started recording it during that decade and Lover had a new burst of popularity then.What amazes me about Rouben Mamoulian is that here was a man who directed such things as Oklahoma, Carousel, Lost In The Stars and Porgy and Bess on stage and then could go to the screen and do classics like Love Me Tonight, Blood and Sand, The Mark Of Zorro, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This man had a complete sense of the cinema, if you find any staged awkwardness in any of his films, I'm not aware of it. The staging of Isn't It Romantic where Maurice and all his neighbors and friends join in and then switching to Jeanette expressing her longing for real romance is perfect. As is the hunting scene which is something that could never be contemplated doing on stage. And Maurice saving the stag probably got him a lifetime appreciation award from PETA.Love Me Tonight after almost 80 years still holds up well and it's a great opportunity for young people today to see and appreciate the lost art of the film musical.