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| Love Me Tonight - 1932 |
The fantastic supporting cast includes Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Elizabeth Patterson, Ethel Griffies, Blanche Friderici, Joseph Cawthorn, and George "Gabby" Hayes.
The film opens with shots of an early morning Paris. I love the use of these shots in the film. It really provides an excellent atmosphere for Maurice Chevalier's opening number "That's The Song of Paree".
Maurice Courtelin (Chevalier) is a tailor who makes clothes for the best dressed man in France, Viscount Gilbert de Vareze (Ruggles). The Viscount runs up an exorbitant bill after ordering a large amount of clothes. When the Viscount refuses to pay, Maurice sets out to where he lives in order to collect.
At the chateau, the Viscount's uncle, the Duke d'Artelines reigns supreme. Actually, quite an assortment of the Viscount's family lives together.
When the Duke gets wind that the Viscount owes more money, he refuses to let him leave and tells him he will get no more funds for his excesses. Another prisoner is the Countess Valentine (Loy).
Myrna Loy is used to great comic effect in the film. When being shown the chateau's "new" footmen, she quips, "Can't we ever get a footman under forty in this place?"
The Duke's niece, the widowed Princess Jeanette, also lives at the chateau. Her first appearance in the film is when she sings "Isn't It Romantic?", a beautiful song. The Princess is ill, constantly plagued by fainting spells.
The Princess's three aunts are busy casting spells of their own, to ensure that their niece has a good night's rest, and also to bring a handsome, YOUNG prince charming into her life. The Princess is twenty-two and was married at sixteen to a seventy-two-year-old man who died three years later.
The next day, Maurice and the Princess meet for the first time. Initially charmed by him, she becomes scandalized after he sings the song "Mimi" to her. All he tells her about himself is that his name is Maurice, and she reveals nothing of herself to him.
Shortly afterwards, Maurice arrives at the chateau, which is seemingly empty. It's humorous to watch him climb numerous staircases in search of someone, climbing higher and higher, and ultimately back down again.
He meets the three aunts who cast the spell for a prince charming, and they seem smitten with him.
The Viscount silences Maurice before he can confront the Duke for the money owed to him by introducing him as his friend "Baron Courtelin" and begs him to stay as a guest. Princess Jeanette is less than thrilled to meet him, as she remembers him as the fresh guy who tried to romance her earlier. Countess Valentine is thrilled for a little fresh male companionship. Maurice charms the entire family, however, and the next morning they all wake up singing excerpts from the song "Mimi".
Princess Jeanette arranges for Maurice to ride a particularly dangerous horse, Solitude, the next day at a hunt. Maurice bravely mounts the animal before it takes off like lightning.
The hunt is on with hounds and horses racing across the countryside after a very tired stag. After a while, Princess Jeanette and two dogs get separated from the rest of the group and come to a very small house in a clearing.
Inside, the Princess finds Maurice feeding the tired stag a plate of oats. They have a few moments together before the Princess heads outside where the entire hunt is waiting. Maurice convinces them that the stag is tired and resting and they should all tiptoe back to the chateau (the use of slow-motion effects is used here, revolutionary in 1930's cinema).
Back at the chateau, the Duke gives a fancy dress ball for "Baron Courtelin", with a large number of invited guests.
Maurice arrives dressed as an apache. Maurice thrills the assemblage with a performance of "The Poor Apache". (A little costume note: Myrna Loy was originally supposed to wear the white gown that Jeanette MacDonald is wearing in this scene. Jeanette saw it and asked that it be used for herself instead. Myrna went to the costumer and they came up with the black gown she eventually wore, and she stole the show.)
In the garden, they fall in love with each other. The Princess says those iconic words, "Whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are, I love you." And Maurice, knowing he must soon reveal himself as a tailor, says, "Whatever comes tomorrow, love me tonight."
After he redesigns her riding costume the next day, the Princess wonders how Maurice could design such a thing as a baron. He tells her that he is a tailor and she runs from the room in tears.
Soon the whole company is in an uproar over the news that the "Baron Courtelin" is in fact a tailor. A humorous song, "The Son of a Gun is Nothing But a Tailor" is sung by the cast. The Duke himself sings out, "I'd rather throw a bomb at her than have her wed a commoner!"
Even the aunts' dog gets in on the action. Barking right along in time with the music.
Sorrowfully, Maurice leaves the chateau and Princess Jeanette behind.
Realizing that she loves him no matter what, the Princess rapidly rides her horse in the direction of the train that Maurice has boarded.
She gets ahead of it and stands on the tracks, forcing the train to stop just inches from her feet. The Princess and Maurice are quickly united. As the aunts later said, "Once upon a time there was a princess and a prince charming, who was not a prince, but who was charming. And they lived happily ever after."
Cast rundown:
Maurice Chevalier..................................Maurice Courtelin
Jeanette MacDonald...............................Princess Jeanette
Charles Ruggles....................................Viscount Gilbert de Vareze
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
Joseph Cawthorn...................................Dr. Armand de Fontinac
George "Gabby" Hayes...........................Grocer
And that's a wrap for Love Me Tonight. It's wonderfully entertaining and very stylishly filmed. The director, Rouben Mamoulian, used techniques such as closeups and slow-motion sequences that were on the cutting edge of film making at the time. John Baxter, author of the book Hollywood in the Thirties, wrote, "If there is a better musical of the Thirties, one wonders what it could be."
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