Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Antonius Block
'Love Me Tonight' is a charming and funny musical, starring Maurice Chevalier as a Parisian tailor who eventually meets and falls in love with a rich Princess played by Jeannette MacDonald. They're both strong and the cast includes the incomparable Myrna Loy in her first 'non-exotic' role, as well as C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke. All of the minor roles are well utilized, including three old ladies who chatter and gossip as they sew and try to cast spells ala the three witches in Macbeth (albeit good spells for the health of the Princess). The musical numbers are entertaining, the best of which is 'Isn't It Romantic?' sung early on by Chevalier, with the tune picked up by one of his customers as he heads out the door, passed along to a taxi driver and his fare, then by a group of soldiers who march, to a gypsy who plays it on a violin, and heard from a balcony by the Princess and sung by MacDonald. It's quite enchanting, and a tune which may stick in your head for awhile afterwards. 'The Son of a Gun Is Nothing But a Tailor' is also nicely performed, and seems years ahead of its time. The movie is chock full of nice touches, from the morning scenes and the 'music of the street' which open the movie, to Chevalier getting on a rambunctious horse for a hunt but then later protecting a deer, to the various witty lines and double entendres which pepper the script. Well done, and a nice (musical) romantic-comedy 1932-style.
gavin6942
A Parisian tailor (Maurice Chevalier) finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess.This film is amazing and perhaps one of the most under-rated of its era. The humor is wonderful, the acting is great, the songs catchy, the dialogue witty... and even a bit edgy at times (with Maurice suggesting his mother was a loose woman).The music here is quite good, and maybe even have inspired industrial music of all things. The opening song, using common street sounds to make a tune is very clever and never repeated again to such a full effect.
blandiefam
A mid summer night's dream is what this inventive and thoroughly entertaining movie reminds me of. I love the frolicking and the great acting. I don't know how the director was able to do some of those shots. They seemed years ahead of their time. I was also impressed with the music. The songs were terrific. My favorite was Mimi. The discussion of class and sex was quite modern for a film done in 1932. It just reminds me of the verse,"there is nothing new under the sun". Some of the almost nude scenes were done in taste and the deer chase was politically correct even for this day and age. The straight forward story enticed me into believing the fantasy mixed with reality. I loved this film and would love to buy it on DVD. Nelson Eddy must have wanted to play the part of Maurice. Myna Loy was stunning in this also.
Cyke
066: Love Me Tonight (1932) - released 8/17/06; viewed 6/17/06.DOUG: We put this movie on our agenda because of its song, "Isn't it Romantic?" which made the AFI's Top 100 Songs list. I'm rather glad we did, since it's the first real musical on the odyssey. It's also an excellent look at the great romancin' French gentleman actor Maurice Chevalier. It's the first time we've seen Chevalier for real (we caught a glimpse of his picture in the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business). In researching Chevalier and the Marx Brothers, I found that none of the brothers is tall enough to pass himself off as Chevalier. We have here a film about the old class boundary: Young heiress Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald) suffers from fainting spells and overprotective relatives, and needs a husband (hey, it's a 30's romance, go with it) her own age, but her Dad keeps trying to set her up with these rich old geezers. Fortunately, along comes Maurice, a tailor who is mistaken for a baron and falls in love with Jeanette. I love, LOVE the scene with Maurice and Jeanette under the tree, when they're telling each other they love each other. There's a lot of odd whimsy in the movie; What's with the scene where Jeanette's aunts are making that witch's brew to cure her fainting spells? Myrna Loy pops up (two years before The Thin Man), and she's quite a pleasure, but we don't see nearly enough of her. Whenever I need to remember what a French accent sounds like, I can just think of Chevalier's voice. If you'd like to have an idea of who Maurice Chevalier was, you might as well start with Love Me Tonight. KEVIN: Five years after the "birth" of sound film and Hollywood has finally established a mastery of music in film. I looooooooooooooooved this movie. I give it 4 out of 5, only because it's not quite memorable enough to garner that fifth star. We have another case of mistaken identity as Maurice Chevalier plays a tailor who poses as a Baron. The first thing I noticed about Chevalier is that he has the best French accent ever. I can't wait to see more of him in Lubitsch's The Merry Widow. Chevalier was 43 at the time, but he doesn't look a day over 35. I enjoyed the randomness of the musical scenes, like in a scene straight out of MacBeth where Jeanette's aunts make a remedy for their niece's fainting spells. My favorite song was "Mimi" the way it's so sweet sounding, yet so very naughty. Director Rouben Mamoulian does some more cool stuff here that seems more at home in a musical than in Jekyll & Hyde. He uses close ups, superimposed images and other cool tricks to advance the emotion of the love story. He also makes every musical scene different. Such as the reprise of "Love Me Tonight" when we just see Maurice and Jeanette sleeping while the song plays and their voices profess their love for each other. Myrna Loy is a pleasure, except for the fact that she doesn't do anything! And for the record, the Marx brothers don't look like Maurice Chevalier.Last film: Movie Crazy (1932). Next film: Blonde Venus (1932).
