Review of Love Me Tonight (1932) by Allan C — 20 Dec 2016

Charming musical from director Rouben Mamoulian is irresistible. I'm generally not a fan of musicals, but this one is a real winner. Mamoulian has made a visually arresting film and has a lot more camera movements that you'd typically see at this time.

I wonder if watching this film at the time was like watch Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge" today. The film is a light, enjoyable romantic comedy about Maurice Chevalier, who I don't think I'd ever seen as a younger actor, as a tailor who falls in love with a princess, Jeanette MacDonald, but all the while being pursued by another sexually aggressive princess played by the amazing Myrna Loy.

This is the film that made Loy a major star and rightfully so. She steals every scene that she's in, even if she's not the star of the picture. The film also features memorable songs by Rodgers and Hart', including "Isn't it Romantic?".

And an interesting note of trivia, this film was made before the restrictive production code but when it was re-released later during the era of the production code, a number of cuts had to be made and as a result the original uncut version of the film is now considered lost.

However, despite that, there is a fair amount of naughty pre-code boundary pushing including MacDonald in a neglige being measured by Chevalier, someone is called a jackass, and Loy's generally very sexual behavior.

Overall, this one is a very fun old fashioned musical that would appeal to audience members outside of musical fans.