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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 12:52 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 12:45 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - portenopete 11:10 am EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| I was very specific. To my ears, Chevalier's accent made it difficult to decipher SOME of his lines and lyrics in ''Love Me Tonight.'' PlayWiz had the same problem and says his English improved in later films. (I loved Chevalier in ''Gigi'' and his accent there was enchanting.) In no way did I xenophobically condemn all foreign accents as ''frustrating.'' I love accents. They can bring charm and a ring of authenticity. But depending on the speaker (and my hearing), some folks are easier to understand than others. And for the record, I did criticize Ken Watanabe in ''The King and I.'' His accent made it hard to understand him, and others posted the same complaint on this board. Some critics noted it, too. And Michael Riedel even wrote a story for the N.Y. Post about this: ''For weeks, my spies in Siam were telling me that nobody at “The King and I” could understand a word Ken Watanabe was saying. And when I say nobody, I mean nobody — from the actors to the audience to the ushers.'' Riedel reported that Watanable was nervous about his English and detailed his efforts to improve it, so his ''Puzzlement'' wouldn't be so puzzling. P.S. I love musicals, so I'm willing to believe people can break into song, but the boundaries of what is or isn't dramatically logical can vary. |
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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 02:27 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 02:11 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - WaymanWong 12:45 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| Interesting story on how Chevalier learned English. He was a prisoner of war in a German POW camp for 2 years during WWI and he and an American (or was it an Englishman?) taught each other their languages while there. It helped Chevalier's international career immensely when he was able to come to Hollywood in the early sound period. I mainly had difficulty with a couple of words here and there, and frankly it wasn't that much worse than a native English speaker with some problems in diction and enunciation. It's also early sound recording -- at one point, during the "I'm An Apache" number, after Chevalier mimes being guillotined and bends forward like he lost his head (in the shadow), he actually goes off mic for a second or two and you can hear his voice faintly before he stands upright and his voice regains full strength again. Another critic who posts reviews on this site when there's theatre to be reviewed, also told me that he considers "Love Me Tonight" the greatest of all movie musicals. I first saw it in revival houses and later in some group gatherings, and most people were enchanted with how well put together it is in terms of use of sound, first use of zoom camera, use of slow and fast motion, the incredible score, the wonderful performances, how naughty some of it is (Man-hungry Valentine/Myrna Loy's great exchange with Charlie Ruggles when Jeanette McDonald collapses -- Ruggles: "Valentine, could you go for a doctorl?" Valentine (Loy): "Sure. Bring him right in !", and many other virtues. It's really funny, too! Plus it's just so fresh for something made in 1932. Only thing really missing from the film is anything in the way of dancing, other than some movement here and there. Even a mistake clearly, but used in the film, when C. Aubrey Smith's armor covering his head repeatedly closing during a line and Charlie Ruggles and Myrna Loy laugh and deal with it as if it were a stage performance and just go on, is wonderful! The garden scene with Chevalier kissing McDonald to revive her (and get slapped twice) to music, the rhyming dialogue seguing into song in the scene with Jeanette and the doctor, musically ticking when he takes her heartbeats during an examination, with her worried about her wasting away and his exit line: "You're not wasting away, you're just wastes!" are just wonderful. The film really is romantic -- "Whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are -- I love you!". Plus the title tune, sung in a voiceover by McDonald and Chevalier as they are sleeping in separate beds, but superimposed next to each other, making it appear they are together, are just superb innovations. Plus the 3 older ladies -- sometimes functioning either as the Fates or 3 benevolent witches out of "MacBeth" stirring a love potion, add a fairy tale and mystical feeling to the film as well, as they are the ones who close the film, too. |
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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 06:02 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - PlayWiz 02:11 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| I agree with every word in your post. I think when it comes to discussing the greatest musicals of all time, it's important to put film musicals into categories. Love Me Tonight is a 30's book musical based on a play with a completely original score composed specifically for the film. I would compare it to other 30's musicals like Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, Swing Time, and The Wizard of Oz. In that group I would rate it pretty highly. I don't think it makes much sense to compare Love Me Tonight to a film like Singin' in the Rain, which doesn't have an original score, or Oklahoma!, which is a film version of a Broadway musical. Love Me Tonight was also made pre-code and (unfortunately) for censorship purposes apparently, it was trimmed of about 15 minutes of footage, which is considered lost. |
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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 07:05 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 06:49 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - BroadwayTonyJ 06:02 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| Yes, it was a pre-code film, but audiences saw the whole thing in 1932. When they revived it some years later after the Hays code started really being enforced around 1934, about 8 minutes, were trimmed and presumed lost. Included was a reprise of "Mimi" during that segment of other characters singing it done by Myrna Loy, which was trimmed apparently because her costume was deemed too revealing. Some of the rest of the scenes are, to some extent, able to be read or are talked about as additional features on some of the DVD releases. But like "The Magnificent Ambersons", another favorite film of mine which had even more major deletions, what remains is a wonderful film. "Singin' in the Rain" is also another with songs (older ones) integrated into a funny and well-written storyline. The big "Broadway Rhythm" section is actually kind of extraneous, but there to show off Gene Kelly. It also catapulted Cyd Charisse to stardom with her dazzling presence and dancing. But it's long -- I've seen the film so many times, that sometimes I skip or step out of the room during it. But well-done, of course. But since the film takes place in 1927, in a way it points out by comparison just how innovative the direction and cinematography of 1932's "Love Me Tonight" and also 1929's "The Love Parade" were, among other early films. McDonald and Chevalier really have some sexy chemistry in the "The Love Parade, especially their first scene together -- where she is reading of his indiscretions while he waits his judgment; she is alternatively smiling, hiding it to show proper decorum, sizing him up, running out of the room to.... fix her hair, powder her cheeks, look in the mirror, run off, then Stop and compose herself as the proper Queen she is supposed to be. Then eventually both sing a wonderfully risque song about meting out his "punishment" in "Anything to Please the Queen", which is full of double entendres, shared looks, smiles and a lot of sexual innuendo. It's just great, and McDonald is so commanding and wonderful in her debut film acting and singing alongside Chevalier's charming rogue. There's also Rodgers and Hammerstein's "State Fair" that was written for the movies, another original musical and a very good one, too. Plus "Meet Me In St. Louis" is superb, and also the many wonderful musicals done at 20th Century Fox which started to be available to been seen again once the video age started. Many of those Alice Faye or Betty Grable starrers with Carmen Miranda Vivian Blaine/June Haver//John Payne/Don Ameche/Charlotte Greemwood are a lot of fun, and many of them were written for the screen. I especially like "That Night In Rio" with Don Ameche great in a duel role (although that's a remake of Maurice Chevalier's also fun "Folies Bergere", later remade for Danny Kaye as "On the Riviera"). "Love Me Tonight" especially is certainly of the 30s, but like most of the Astaire-Rogers films, it is timeless in its ability to entertain and delight its audiences. |
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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Posted by: notung 09:49 am EDT 08/27/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - PlayWiz 06:49 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| What remains is wonderful, indeed. And Myrna Loy, as always, is a delight (despite her limited screen time). Hoping that a complete print will be discovered and restored one day. | |
| Link | Myrna Loy "Mimi" reprise |
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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 07:48 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - PlayWiz 06:49 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| The musical numbers in Folies Bergere de Paris are dazzling and the best feature of the movie. Chevalier and Sothern at that stage in their careers are not yet all that adept with witty dialogue, but I do like the film. I love On the Riviera. Kaye is terrific, better than both Chevalier and Ameche. Gene Tierney is also excellent. And then there's Gwen Verdon. The 1945 State Fair is beautifully acted and sung. I also like the 1940 Down Argentine Way and the 1941 Sun Valley Serenade. Meet Me in St. Louis is a great film, Americana at its best, beautifully photographed, designed, and directed. Holiday Inn is another fine 40's musical with a mostly original score except for the interpolated "Easter Parade". The chemistry betwen McDonald and Chevalier was palpable. Besides Love Me Tonight, my next favorite film of theirs is The Merry Widow. |
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| re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 09:41 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 09:26 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - BroadwayTonyJ 07:48 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| Some really wonderful films you mention! Plus Lubitsch's direction is just so surprising and original. I watched the silent film version of "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" recently which doesn't feature the famous Romberg score but a new very effective one by Carl Davis, and it does have wonderful performances by Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer and Jean Hersholt. Those directorial choices of Lubitsch were just stunning, especially that shot of the lovers in that field of flowers blowing around. The actors were so good and Novarro so naive, trusting, handsome, energetic -- Shearer so vital, charmingly believable, sympathetic, and so sexily actively checking out Novarro's front and back, and Hersholt endearingly being the sheltered Prince's only real friend and advisor, just really still registered for a silent film made in 1927. There was another Lubitsch film, a sex comedy recently rediscovered and shown on TCM - highly recommend called "So This Is Paris" with Monte Blue and Lilyan Tashman, which is pretty hilarious and again showcases Lubitsch's brilliant surprising direction. This also has a sequence at a nightclub, while silent, besides the musical track, really points the way to how later musical production numbers in the sound era could be filmed. I like all of those Chevalier, Ameche and Kaye films on the same plot. I've only seen them once apiece at this point, and I believe Ameche really surprised me with his acting in it. I knew he was charming, good-looking and a good singer, but his two characterizations were very different, and I thought very impressive. I love Ann Sothern too, excellent singer and actress who should have been given better musicals at her studio. Gene Tierney was gorgeous and a wonderful actress. Alice Faye is a little underused in that film as Ameche's parts are really the focus, though Carmen Miranda is always a treat, especially in 20th Century Fox Technicolor. |
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| "dual' role, not "duel", I mean. nm | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 07:06 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - PlayWiz 06:49 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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| "you're just wasted" not "wastes" nm | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 02:37 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Try "Love Me Tonight" - it's incredibly witty, funny, tuneful and delightful nm - PlayWiz 02:11 pm EDT 08/25/21 | |
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