Love Me Tonight (1932)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Rouben Mamoulian

Writers:

Paul Armont (play)
Samuel Hoffenstein (writer)

Release Date:

17 August 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Comedy

Tagline:

Warm Love! Hilarious fun! Sweet music! Hot lyrics!

Plot:

A Parisian tailor finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizeable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess.

Plot Keywords:

Tailor | Beautiful Woman | Cobbler | Deer | Debt

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Maurice Chevalier	...	Maurice Courtelin a.k.a Baron Courtelin
Jeanette MacDonald	...	Princess Jeanette
Charles Ruggles	...	Viscount Gilbert de Varèze (as Charlie Ruggles)
Charles Butterworth	...	Count de Savignac
Myrna Loy	...	Countess Valentine
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Duke d'Artelines
Elizabeth Patterson	...	First Aunt
Ethel Griffies	...	Second Aunt
Blanche Friderici	...	Third Aunt (as Blanche Frederici)
Joseph Cawthorn	...	Dr. Armand de Fontinac (as Joseph Cawthorne)
Robert Greig	...	Major Domo Flammand
Bert Roach	...	Emile

Runtime:

104 min | 96 min (re-release) | USA:88 min (Turner Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

According to her autobiography, Myrna Loy was originally going to wear white empire-style dress for the party sequence, but Jeanette MacDonald was jealous of how she looked insisted that she had to wear it herself instead. Loy surrendered the dress, but then went down the to the costume room and, with a friend's help, put together the black lace outfit she wears in the final film. She stole the scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: Just before the "Isn't It Romantic?" number begins in the tailor shop, Maurice reacts with pleasure as his customer Emile steps out of the dressing room, supposedly wearing his new suit. But in the mirror's reflection we can see that actor Roach is still wearing his long-johns from earlier in the scene. In the next shot, he is suddenly wearing the suit.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywood Remembers: Myrna Loy - So Nice to Come Home to (1991) (TV)

Soundtrack:

A Woman Needs Something Like That

The greatest movie musical ever made!

No, really -- I defy anyone to name a movie musical more exuberant, more creative, more romantic, melodic, hilarious, or escapist; not even "Singin' in the Rain" equals it. From opening shot (a rhythmic ballet-mechanique of Paris coming to life at dawn) to fade-out (a happy-ending finale that also parodies Eisenstein), it's bursting with ingenious ideas.

The pre-Code screenplay, rife with double entendres and social satire, is a princess-and-commoner love story written to the strengths of its two stars: Chevalier, never more charming, and MacDonald, never a subtler comedienne. With one foot in fantasy and the other in reality, it manages to sustain an otherworldly feeling even while grounded in the modern-day Paris of klaxons, tradesmen, and class consciousness. The supporting cast is phenomenal, with Myrna Loy as a man-hungry countess, C. Aubrey Smith doing his old-codger thing, Charles Butterworth priceless as a mild-mannered nobleman ("I fell flat on my flute!"), and Blanche Frederici, Ethel Griffies, and Elizabeth Patterson as a benign version of the Macbeth witches' trio.

All are wonderful, but the real muscle belongs to the director and the songwriters. Mamoulian's camera has a rhythm of its own and many tricks up its lens: note the fox-hunt sequence suddenly going into slow-motion; the Expressionist shadowplay in Chevalier's "Poor Apache" specialty; the sudden cuts in the "Sonofagun is Nothing But a Tailor" production number. As for the Rodgers and Hart score, it's simply the best they ever wrote for a film -- maybe the best anybody wrote for a film. The songs are unforgettable in themselves -- "Isn't It Romantic?", "Mimi," "Lover," etc. -- but, and here is where genius enters, they're superbly integrated and magnificently thought out. Note the famous "Isn't It Romantic" sequences, the camera roaming effortlessly through countless verses from tailor shop to taxi to field to gypsy camp to castle, finally linking the two leads subliminally, though their characters have never met. "A musical," Mamoulian once said, "must float." This sequence may float higher than any other in any musical.

Best of all, you can sense the unbridled enthusiasm the authors must have had for this project: Rodgers and Hart seem positively giddy with the possibilities of cinema, eager to defy time, place, and reason as was never possible for them onstage. What a pity that this magnificent movie isn't available on video, so that future generations can't easily rediscover its brilliance.