NFR Project: 'Love Me Tonight' (1932)

 

NFR Project: ‘Love Me Tonight’

Dir: Rouben Mamoulian

Scr: Samuel Hoffenstein, George Marion Jr., Waldemar Young

Pho: Victor Milner

Ed: Rouben Mamoulian, William Shea

Premiere: August 18, 1932

104 min.

This frothy musical concoction is little remembered, overshadowed by influences such as the films of Rene Clair and Ernst Lubitsch. Still, it’s a solid effort in the vein of the whimsical European romance, in which star-crossed lovers overcome obstacles to be together.

Maurice Chevalier is a Parisian tailor, who tracks down a count (Charlie Ruggles) who owes him money. He arrives at the family chateau, where he immediately runs across and falls in love with a princess, played by Jeanette MacDonald. In order to avoid the wrath of his uncle (C. Aubrey Smith), the tailor is presented as a count. Complications ensue.

The highlights of the film as musical numbers, prerecorded to give the filmmakers more flexibility in staging. “Isn’t It Romantic?”, “Lover,” and “Mimi” figure prominently in the story, bouncing from character to character as the need arises.

Everyone does a smooth job of playing the screwball aspects of the script, and the ornate sets compete with the intimacy of the scenes set in them. Altogether a textbook musical comedy.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Music Box.