LOVE ME TONIGHT
US, 1932, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette Mac Donald, Charles Butterworth, Charles Ruggles, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Elizabeth Patterson.
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
Love Me Tonight is an early sound musical - but one which has a strong reputation, deservedly so. Direction is by Rouben Mamoulian (Applause, City Streets at this time). In these films he showed his skill with camera, fluid movement, imaginative use of the screen. This is evident in this musical.
It is a star vehicle for Jeanette Mac Donald and Maurice Chevalier, who had appeared in One Hour With You and The Love Parade. There is a very solid supporting cast led by Charlie Ruggles, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith.
The musical score is by Rodgers and Hart, which includes such perennials as `Isn't It Romantic', `Lover' and `Mimi'. The staging of the songs is highly imaginative for its time - collage effect, rapid pacing and editing, different scenes, characters illustrating themselves by their song. It is not always that one has C. Aubrey Smith singing `Mimi'. The other songs include the opening song of `Paris', `Apache', `The Son of a Gun is a Tailor' and the title song.
While dated, a fairy tale of the '30s, it is well worth seeing for cinema techniques as well as '30s entertainment.
1.A film of the '30s, the skill of Rouben Mamoulian? The stars?
2.Black and white photography, Paris, the chateau? Sets, costumes and decor?
3.Rodgers and Hart score: `Paris', `Lover', `Isn't It Romantic', `Mimi', `Love Me Tonight', `Apache', `The Son of a Gun is a Tailor'? Insertion in the plot? The characters singing the songs? Visual techniques?
4.The plot as a fairy tale: the princess and the commoner, the castle, Sleeping Beauty, the end - and a more egalitarian '30s ending of the fairy tale?
5.The importance of the visuals: the collage of Paris awaking, the development, the number of sounds and their being orchestrated? Maurice singing `Isn't It Romantic', the succession of people singing it so that we move from his shop to the chateau? Jeanette Mac Donald riding and `Lover'? Maurice Chevalier and `Mimi' and its reprise by the whole cast? His shadow for `Apache'? the split screen and the dreams for `Love Me Tonight'?
6.Maurice and his work in Paris, singing, his customers, friendly? Gilbert and the race, the suit? Creditors? Going to get the money, the car breaking down, the encounter with the princess? His arrival, being well liked, Gilbert calling him a baron? Persuaded to stay, the ball, the `Apache' song? The hunt, the wild horse, looking after the deer? The hunting suit and his fixing it? The truth, his leaving, the princess chasing him in the train, happy ending?
7.The princess in the tower, her being a widow, aged husband, ill, the doctor recommending marriage, pampered by the family, the hunt, the ball, the riding suit and the tailor being insulted, the dream, rejecting Maurice, chasing him on horseback?
8.The uncle and his bluster, the snobbery of the aristocracy, eligibility of suitors for marriage? The three ladies - and the echoes of Macbeth's witches? Yet the comic touches?
9.Gilbert, in the race, his debts, persuading Maurice to stay, the truth? The countess, her place in the household, her charm, the ball? The suitor and his researching the baron?
10.The staff, their snobbery, their songs?
11.The atmosphere of the '30s? A fairy tale? Social comment? Setting traditions for musical comedy?
