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| Love Me Tonight | 
| Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette Macdonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, Myrna Loy
Studio: Kino Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.32
You Save: $10.63 (35%)
Buy New/Used from $14.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  (20 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15764
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 89 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 3222
UPC: 738329032227
EAN: 0738329032227
ASIN: B0000UX4V2
Release Date: November 25, 2003
Theatrical Release Date: August 17, 1932
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
The best movie musical you've never heard of is Love Me Tonight, a deliciously clever 1932 Rodgers and Hart romp. The film opens with a tour de force, as the rhythmic sounds of a Paris morning morph into music and we meet a humble tailor (Maurice Chevalier) whose future looks bright. At least he thinks so. And then the great song "Isn't It Romantic?" kicks in, introduced by Chevalier but immediately handed off to client, cab driver, and a series of tune-carriers who finally bring the catchy melody to a dreamy princess (Jeannette MacDonald). It's probably the giddiest sequence in a very fun film, and "Isn't It Romantic?" would continue popping up in Paramount movies for years (Billy Wilder was especially partial to it). The humble tailor must travel to the princess's chateau to collect a bill from family playboy Charlie Ruggles, which puts Chevalier in pleasant proximity to MacDonald and saucy Myrna Loy. It also brings forth more Rodgers and Hart goodies: the classic "Lover" (a great romantic waltz played here as a lark), "Mimi," and the title song. Rouben Mamoulian directed, in the full stride of his early-sound creativity (this was just after his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), using a variety of effects that look positively New Wave. Chevalier and MacDonald are a delight together (by all means see them in The Love Parade and One Hour with You, too), and Charlie Butterworth has some glorious moments as a prospective MacDonald suitor. Also worth the price of admission: the spectacle of crusty character actor C. Aubrey Smith singing. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
Chevalier in Top Form October 24, 2008
Musical: From Broadway to Hollywood
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake
Rouben Mamoulian directed this classic 1932 Rodgers and Hart musical, which was elected to the National Film Registry in 1990.
Maurice Chevalier stars as a Paris tailor who meets princess Jeanette MacDonald while he is trying to collect his past due bill from her cousin (Charlie Ruggles). Introduced to her (by Ruggles) as being royalty, Maurice is immediately smitten, though Jeanette takes an instant dislike to him.
Naturally, by film's end, all this has changed and the couple gets together.
Yes, the plot is rather silly, but the reason for watching this charming film is the marvelous musical numbers, brilliantly staged by Mamoulian and performed by Chevalier and MacDonald. Among the highlights are "Mimi," "Isn't It Romantic" and "Lover".
DVD extras include clips of Chevalier singing his signature song, "Louise," from another movie and MacDonald singing "Love Me Tonight" from that same film. There is also audio commentary by film musical authority Miles Kreuger, plus screenplay excerpts of deleted scenes.
Michael B. Druxman. author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)
The best Lubitsch film which is not directed by Lubitsch! May 27, 2008
If somebody wants to find out how popular music and moving images go together to become a great work of art - study this film!
The bonus features are great, the transfer of the film itself seems to have caused some problems. Fast camera movements look a bit bumpy here. Certainly not on a 35mm print! Anyway - this DVD is one of the most important releases and worth its prize!
Not outdated at all! June 27, 2007
This movie, old as it is, is not outdated at all! Enjoyed it very much. Only wish it have English subtiltes for those of us who are hard of hearing. Maurice Chevalier is wonderful! I wish they have more of his early novies on DVD. I rate this movie very high, it is that good!
Funny, charming -- and a stylistic breakthrough January 10, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
So I'm watching "Dreamgirls" --- well, sort of watching; the screen is blurred by my tears of joy at the mere existence of such a dazzling achievement. And I'm thinking that it's ever so slightly familiar.
It's not the theme, though this is hardly the first film to show how original art is watered down so it can thrill a mass audience.
It's not the music, which starts as strong soul, transits through powerful R&B and ends up as a homogenized vehicle for a star who is, by now, just "passing" as a black woman.
Ah! It's the way the story is told, a quasi-operatic style in which dialogue segues into song --- and instead of talking to one another, characters sing their thoughts back and forth.
And then, because although I have trouble remembering last week, I'm strong on old movies, I got it: "Dreamgirls" is cousin to "Love Me Tonight," a 1932 musical by Rouben Mamoulian.
You may never have heard of this film. Blame that on television, which long ago turned away from late-night broadcasts of black-and-white classics. Had "Love Me Tonight" been on and had you seen the opening sequence, you would have been hooked --- it's that rare combination: great originality and total fun.
We're in Paris. Early morning, as the city awakes. A workman shows up with a pick and starts chipping away at the pavement. Another sweeps. A knife sharpener puts an edge on the first blade of the day. Two cobblers take seats outside their shop and hammer at heels. A woman beats a carpet.
It's pure rhythm --- street sound as melody. And it's just a little too much for young Maurice Chevalier, who shuts his window, finishes dressing and heads downstairs. But hey, he's Maurice Chevalier; as he walks down the street, he sings to his neighbors. And they sing back to him.
Time to get serious: Maurice is a tailor. A good one. And, he thinks, a lucky one --- he has just made 15 suits for Vicomte Gilbert de Vareze, the most fashionable man in Paris. His future is assured.
You know the punch line: The Vicomte is a penniless deadbeat who has stiffed every tradesman on the block. He lives off crumbs from his disapproving uncle, the Duke d'Artelines. So Maurice charges off to the Duke's chateau to extract payment.
On the way, he meets Jeannette MacDonald, and falls instantly in love. Once at the chateau, there is the inevitable confusion about Maurice's identity --- the last thing the Vicomte wants his uncle to know is that a tailor has come to collect a small fortune --- and Maurice gets the chance to try his charm on MacDonald, who it turns out, is a widow.
Not just any widow. A widow who feels she is, at 21, "wasting away." Her doctor, with an eye on her breasts, disagrees. His diagnosis: She's "being wasted."
Throughout, the dialogue is brisk and racy:
Jeanette: What are you doing now?
Maurice: I'm thinking. I'm thinking of you without these clothes.
Jeanette: Open your eyes at once!
Maurice: Oh no, pardon, madam. With different clothes. Smart clothes.
No wonder the censors snipped some 15 minutes from the film.
The music is by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. It includes such classics as "Isn't It Romantic?" and is, as the opening sequence suggests, integral to the film. But let Mamoulian explain: "I decided to make the movie lyrical, thoroughly stylized: a film in which the whole action of actors, as well as the movement of camera and cutting was rhythmic. Then I got Rodgers and Hart to write the music....We finished the whole score before I began to work on the script. We did the whole thing to a metronome, because we couldn't carry an orchestra round with us."
Mistaken identity. Stars at their zenith. Classic songs. Double entendres galore. Even a happy ending: "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."
If you have any weakness for old movies, don't miss "Love Me Tonight."
A Landmark Musical February 1, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Another perfect film is now readily available on DVD. This film is widely recognised as one of the best musicals ever. It combines a superb Rodgers and Hart score with the subtle sexy humour of Ernst Lubitsch and the visual flair which Rouben Mamoulian, the director, brought to so many of his films.
Maurice Chevalier plays a tailor who meets princess Jeanette MacDonald when he visits her castle to collect outstanding debts from Charlie Ruggles. Macdonald is a widow who keeps fainting not from "wasting away" as the doctor diagnoses, but "being wasted". Macdonald falls for Chevalier and after a few plot devices which will keep them apart because he is a commoner, they reunite to live happily ever after. If the story sounds like a fairy tale, it is but that does not detract from the enchantment of the piece.
Chevalier plays his usual charming self and Macdonald is sexy and funny in a way she rarely showed with Nelson Eddy. Myrna Loy is ravishing as her nymphomaniac cousin and this comes as a surprise to those who know her as the perfect wife. All of the supporting cast are memorable though Charlie Ruggles steals every scene in which he appears.
The score includes the incomparable "Mimi", "Lover" and "Isn't it Romantic". The commentary by Miles Kreuger is outstanding, avoiding mere biographical details and really giving us insight into the relevance of this film in 1932 and why it still stands up today. There is a lot of information about what was cut from the film when it was reissued, cuts which have been lost for ever at this date. The DVD print is excellent but there is quite a bit of background surface noise at times which can be distracting.
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