Love Me Tonight (1932)

The silver screen's favorite Frenchman, Maurice Chevalier, returns with his frequent feminine co-star Jeanette MacDonald in what is hailed as perhaps their best work, Rouben Mamoulin's Love Me Tonight. Once again the team of Chevalier and MacDonald take us to Paris for a romantic comedy about love between classes. The film would bring together many great artists to produce what some critics consider to be the pinnacle of the film musical. With director Rouben Mamoulin fresh off the success of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, along with the famous song writing team of Rogers and Hart, and the performances of Chevalier and MacDonald it would be hard to refute such claims as it would seem the best of the best all happened to come together for this 1932 picture.

Love Me Tonight tells the story of a Parisian tailor who is disguised as a noble baron, falls in love with princess, the troubles of hiding his true stature, and the aftermath once the truth is revealed. Maurice Chevalier plays the poor tailor whose best customer happens to be Viscount Gilbert de Varèze (Charles Ruggles), a member of an aristocratic family and who cannot pay his bills. When Maurice comes to collect that which he is owed Gilbert hides from his family the large debt he has accrued by introducing Maurice as a baron to his family. The family included a cast of characters, the family patriarch Count de Savignac (Charles Butterworth), the man crazy Valentine (Myrna Loy), and the widowed princess Jeanette (MacDonald). Maurice takes a quick shine to the princess continually trying to make the somewhat sad princess happy, even through song. With this being a musical keep in mind that many emotions are expressed through song. After many humorous encounters of Jeanette trying to deflect the gestures of Maurice she becomes found of his charm, that is until it is discovered he is in fact only a tailor. The truth causes a ripple throughout the family, leaving Jeanette shocked and humiliated for being misled. Maurice starts his way back home in shame, but of course Jeanette would realize her love for him is still strong no matter who he is and comes running to bring him back to her.

The musical is actually very enjoyable. (This coming from a person who is not too fond of the musical genre.) The film stands out form the other musicals of the time period, a time that was very much dominated by Maurice Chevalier anyways. Despite the film involving an rich, aristocratic family, the picture does not play as "snobby" (my choice of words) as the other films of the time do. Perhaps it is because Chevalier plays a poor tailor instead as a rich nobleman, giving the film its quaint charm. The love story is something we have seen time and time again as a poor man wins the heart of a rich woman under the pretense that he himself is of the same class before the walls come crashing down with the truth, but love prevails. It is a tale as old as storytelling, but one that works well in this picture.

The cast and crew all do a wonderful job in producing this good musical. All under the helm of young director Rouben Mamoulian, who had experience as a Broadway director, but became well skilled with a camera in his earlier pictures Applause and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His fine movement of camera, use of models, and editing are put on display in this musical masterpiece. The musical writing team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with their decade of experince in writing Broadway musicals, moved to Hollywood where they would start writing songs for movies. For Love Me Tonight they would write many enjoyable songs like "Mimi" and "Lover," but it would be the theme song song of the picture "Isn't it Romantic?" that would become the huge success of the movie. Though the song would commonly be known as a slow emotional tune in time, the film had it played out in comedic fashion as the song would be passed from one character to another in a lighthearted manner. The tune would be a long standing staple of the picture. Even the American Film Institute (AFI) years later would name "Isn't it Romantic?" one of film history's best songs, placing it at #73 on the best 100 list in 2004, 72 years after the film originally came out.

Chevalier gives a grand performance in the picture. Despite his own hamming up of his normal French accent (which he commonly did for his films) his acting was above his average performance, as he plays a more vulnerable character, leaving you more attached to him emotionally . Jeanette MacDonald gives us her normal performance as a snob of a princess with the deeply powered singing voice. Of course it would not be Hollywood without a little backstage controversy, and that is where Myrna Loy comes in. Loy who for years played bit roles in Hollywood, mainly as background characters in such movies as The Jazz Singer, Ben-Hur, and Don Jaun. Loy was just beginning her way up when cast as the man-craving Valentine, a side comedic character if anything. Her acting in this comedy role allowed her thespian skill to shine, which made star Jeanette MacDonald a bit jealous. When Loy was spied in her fine white dress for the ball scene, Jeanette demand that she herself would wear it. Loy would relinquish the dress, but would visit the costume department where she would choose a lacy black dress that would stand out from MacDonald. Loy would have the last laugh as she stole the scene.

As with most pictures at this time, Love Me Tonight would have its battles with the censors. After all the story is about love and would poke fun at love making through song and dialogue, but the censors hit the film harder with the visuals, for the words were so carefully and playfully done that you could not change them. In 1934 the film was reissued by Paramount, but by then the Hays Code was in play and that trimmed the movie down to a 94 minute run time. Unfortunately the cuts would be presumed lost for all time never, meaning the picture would never return to its original form.

Love Me Tonight would be a successful film for Paramount. In time many critics would call it the peak of musicals in film. It is hard to say if it stands up to that of Singing in the Rain or The Sound of Music, but we can say that for its time period in cinema history that this particular film does stand out as being above the rest. It left a lasting memory with one of film's favorite songs and would continue to showcase the talents of Maurice Chevalier as early musical's biggest star. The film is a fine example of cinema discoving how the musical was a fine genre in the world of movies.