Love Me Tonight

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Matthew B In 1931 Rouben Mamoulian made a film version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which is a fine example of a horror movie in which the director practically turned a popular film into an art form. The following year he made Love Me Tonight, which offered to do the same for the musical. The movie is made with great technical skill, and a fluidity that was rare in the early 1930s. Love Me Tonight is said to have been the first film to use zoom lens. However Mamoulian made full use of the other cinematic methods that were available to him at the time. Camera speed is slowed down or run faster. Images are superimposed on one another. A split screen is employed at one point. These methods are not used arbitrarily for the sake of showing off, but are applied when they enhance the storyline. The camera speed increases only once when the film's hero, Maurice (Maurice Chevalier) is forced to ride an unruly horse. The effect is used comically to make the horse's behaviour seem worse than it is. Later Maurice orders the members of a hunt to leave quietly so as not to wake up a sleeping stag. At this point, the film runs in slow-motion to create the illusion that the hunters, and even the horses, are leaving on tiptoes. Images are superimposed on one another at the end of the film to create a subjective effect when the Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald) is remembering why she loves Maurice. Her memories seem to be all around her head. As a last example, and a saucier one, the split screen shows both Maurice and the Princess in their separate beds, and is as near as a 1932 movie can get to showing us a scene of them in bed together. One of the film's other remarkable features is its innovative use of editing during songs. In the average 1930s musical (and in many since) the songs are performed in one setting by a limited number of singers. In the world of Love Me Tonight, the rapid cuts between scenes allows a multiplicity of singers and settings. It is as if the whole world is caught up in the happy adventures of Maurice and the Princess. Still what gives the film its charm is the absence of any shadow over the story. The songs of Rodgers and Hart are charming and witty. Some of the dialogue is written in verse too. The film is as unashamedly romantic as its title and songs promise, culminating in a fantastical train scene that fits well into the unreal and idealised world of the characters. This is essentially a feel-good movie that is unlikely to push anybody's buttons, something that is reflected in the casting. Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald were two of the best-loved stars of their age, and they made a number of musicals together. Nowadays neither performer is too well-known. Chevalier is renowned by name rather than for any of his films, and MacDonald is even less well-remembered. Of course the final happy ending is inevitable, as this is the light stuff of fairy tales. However Mamoulian takes the gossamer material and makes it into something special. Love Me Tonight deserves to be remembered with all the other great musicals such as Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story and An American in Paris. I wrote a blog expressing a longer appreciation of Love Me Tonight if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/love-me-tonight-1932/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/27/23 Full Review Audience Member This film is about a tailor who poses as a nobleman and a princes who he falls in love with. The staging of "Isn't it Romantic?" was revolutionary for its time, combining both singing and film editing as the song is passed from one singer to another all of whom were at different locales. This is the best musical of the 1930s. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Luca D I haven't seen this movie in a while but I remember it being very good. The music is outstanding and it's a very fun movie. Definitely would watch again Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/05/21 Full Review William L Simple in concept and often in execution (many of the songs are more lyrically spoken word than actual song), Love Me Tonight is still a highly enjoyable muscial treat. The set design and even some of the prop work have surprisingly good quality, with many well-conceived sets intended for only single shots, and there's a great sight gag where a portrait bust of an unnamed ancestor falls off the wall in shock at the revelation that Chevalier's Courtelin is "nothing but a tailor", and subsequently flaps his lips and joins in the chorus of shock. Groundbreaking in its exploration of how a musical could evolve when taken from stage to screen, particularly its use of editing and cuts between locations and characters in individual numbers. There is some classic, if not particularly innovative, lampooning of the established upper crust, but odds are most audience members today are watching for a simple, wholesome romantic muscial than some hidden social subtext. If there is any one element that's not so much to my taste, it's Chevalier himself; he's got charisma, but I can't help but feel that the man skated by on a particularly thick French accent rather than exceptional vocal talent. (4/5) Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/06/21 Full Review Audience Member Love Me Tonight is overloaded with charm, and most of that is because Maurice Chevalier is such a likeable guy. There’s only one film where I disliked him, and that was more a script issue than a problem with him, so I’d like to explore more of his work. You want to go on this journey with him because he is so sweet, and you feel for him when things don’t go his way. He plays a unique mix of innocence and street smarts that must be difficult to pull off. I also like the way the mistaken identity premise is handled here. It got away from one of my big pet peeves through a clever setup. I typically hate these stories because all it would take is one simple conversation to clear up all the misunderstandings, and they have to contrive things to convince us that the main character wouldn’t have that conversation before things got any worse. In this film, it’s not really our hero’s lie, so he feels obligated to go along with it in order to save face for the Baron, and potentially get his money. The romance works well here, even if it is a little accelerated. A very short time of courting is just a common thing in romantic comedies that you have to accept, and it didn’t bother me. Jeanette MacDonald sells her side of the romance well, and had me convinced she really fell for Chevalier. The songs are sometimes familiar and always delightful. I adored the scene where Isn’t it Romantic spread from person to person as if ear worms were contagious. I kind of wish they had come back to that, because I kept expecting it to pay off that he created this song that became a nationwide hit. In fact, I enjoyed the songs so much that I wish there were more. This feels like a film on that borderline between being a musical, and being a movie with some music. If it went all-in on the musical it would have been delightful. Even without that, it was pretty delightful. Love Me Tonight is one of those movies that just made me smile from ear-to-ear for the entire runtime. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/09/19 Full Review s r 1001 movies to see before you die. Saw this on YouTube. A happy musical with Chevalier at his best. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Love Me Tonight

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