In 1932, long before anyone thought of social media, Rouben Mamoulian captured the magic of going viral
"LOVE ME TONIGHT"
VALENTINE'S DINNER & CLASSIC MOVIE
Friday, February 12, 2016
Highland Country Club 931 Alexandria Pike, Ft. Thomas, KY 41075
Cocktails & Dinner starts at 6:00; Film 7:30; discussion after.
WHY YOU SHOULD SEE THIS FILM:
If you like love stories, romantic comedy, great songs, classic cinema and the candid vibrancy of pre-censorship Hollywood, this film is for you!
If you're interested in the history of cinema, or cinema as an art form, you'll see how this film advanced the craft of filmmaking in many important ways.
More about this ...
Tony D'Ambra, in his excellent essay on LOVE ME TONIGHT, shares the following:
Film writer Mark Cousins chose the following words from Arthur Koestler to preface his book The Story of Film: "The measure of an artist's originality, put in its simplest terms, is the extent to which his selective emphasis deviates from the conventional norm and establishes new standards of relevance.
All great innovations which inaugurate a new era, movement or school, consist in sudden shifts of a previously neglected aspect of experience, some blacked out range of the existential spectrum.
The decisive turning points in the history of every art form... uncover what has already been there; they are 'revolutionary', that is destructive and constructive, they compel us to revalue our values and impose new sets of rules on the eternal game."
Why repeat these thoughts in a review of Rouben Mamoulian's musical film Love Me Tonight? Two reasons:
Firstly, While not addressing cinema directly, Koestler, in crystallizing the essence of artistic creativity, brings into focus the nature of film as art: isolating an aspect of experience within the cinematic frame.
Secondly, because Mamoulian's achievement in this early talkie establishes a new standard of relevance. The British film critic Geoff Andrew in a capsule review of LOVE ME TONIGHT describes the 'Mamoulian touch' as an: "unforced sense of sophisticated fun co-existing with real cinematic invention." — Tony D'Ambra, Wonders in the Dark
You don't need to be a techie to marvel at the direction, camera work and production skills of Rouben Mamoulian, whose inventive genius created one of the most sophisticated and technically accomplished cinematic works of its time. This virtually flawless film had a profound effect on the genre and is considered one of the best movie musicals ever made.
Accolades from audiences, film historians and critics are numerous and effusive – see Resources, below. Everything fits together seamlessly – the witty screenplay, the chemistry of the all-star cast and supporting comedic troupe, the infectious melodies in the brilliant, hit-laden score created by the famous team of Rodgers and Hart ... yet the film doesn't take itself too seriously and the cast had a good time making it.
With its double entendres and suggestive dialogue and images, the themes of romance, sex and seduction are the obvious comedic focus of LOVE ME TONIGHT. Risqué but not licentious, the film is so well written, directed and acted it doesn't need the sexual devices we see in contemporary films.
EVENT DETAILS:
Buffet dinner with multiple entrées, sides, salad; complimentary glass of wine, dessert, coffee or tea. Advance Tickets: Dinner+Film = $35, Film Only = $10. Additional bar purchases can be made directly with HCC. LIMITED SEATING in an intimate setting, advance reservations recommended. Easy access, free parking, Google Map.
THE FILM:
An amazing, one-of-a-kind opening, with two distinct parts
The opening sequence consists of three songs and several snatches of dialogue that introduce a vast array of characters while simultaneously depicting their environment. The scale of Mamoulian's achievement is evident from the first eighteen minutes, which so effectively establish the key themes of town/country, night/day, rich/poor, old/new and two hearts becoming one.
First: The movie begins with a brilliant audio/visual montage, with the sights and rhythmic sounds of morning street life in Paris. The scene morphs into introduction of a tailor, Maurice Courtelin (Chevalier), as he starts his day and walks to work, greeting friends in song as they open their shops. Courtelin's humble quarters and his encounters with the "everyman" citizenry establishes the working class milieu, building rapid rapport with the Depression-era film audience.
Mamoulian's eight-minute tour de force subtly, yet effectively, sets the stage for the story to be told: Yes, this a romantic comedy fairy tale for adults, but we'll come to sense tension between the petit bourgeois and the elite.
Second: Rodgers, Hart and Mamoulian came up with the idea of a song that would be handed off from one character to another, and the beautiful and lasting "Isn't It Romantic" was born.
More about the opening sequence ...
Rodgers, Hart and Mamoulian came up with the idea of a song that would be handed off from one character to another, and the beautiful and lasting "Isn't It Romantic" was born.
After a couple minutes with customers, Chevalier starts the song in his shop, hands it off to a friend buying a wedding suit, who exits the shop and passes it along to a cab driver, where it's picked up by a poet/passenger, who shares it with a train full of French soldiers, who hand it off to a group of marching troops, where it's taken up by a young gypsy boy with violin who carries it to his camp where the whole clan is soon singing around a campfire. The song finally wafts across the valley to the estate of the Duke de Varese, where it is heard and sung by the Duke's niece, Princess Jeanette (MacDonald), who shares her longing for love with the stars in the sky.
The sequence goes on for several minutes and the song changes tempo, lyrics and interpretation as it is passed along. This enduring love song defines romance via the eyes and hearts of its numerous singers, demonstrating both universality and diversity. The two principal characters, Maurice and Jeanette, are linked for us by song even before they meet in person, and thus the stage is fully set for the story to unfold.
In addition to the fascinating blending of songs and action that sets the film apart, LOVE ME TONIGHT features technical attributes that are decades ahead of their time. Using everything from zoom lenses to slow motion (unknown in 1930's Hollywood), Mamoulian's technique includes a saucy split screen shot of Maurice and Jeanette's heads on neighboring pillows; an elevated starburst top shot that preceded Busby Berkeley's signature camera angle; and a nod to his Russian film training and Sergei Eisenstein in the final frames. In a self-parody of the rom-com genre, Mamoulian's romantic role reversal and empowerment of his female lead was rare in the '30s.
THE MUSIC:
If one considers cinema as an early form of social media, the creative genius of Mamoulian, Rodgers and Hart is confirmed by watching the iconic "Isn't It Romantic" go viral onscreen, sung and passed along by many people while covering the distance from Paris to countryside in the course of a single day.
And in the realm of popular culture, the viral metaphor is equally apt... "Isn't It Romantic" was featured in eight other movies, recorded by dozens of vocal artists and jazz grouips, embraced by cultures around the world and is plentifully found on YouTube, Google and myriad other websites.
LOVE ME TONIGHT is considered the screen's first integrated musical, in which script and musical numbers are so closely related that every number serves a dramatic purpose. As such, it was actually the precursor by a decade to the stage's first integrated musical, Oklahoma!, (also directed by Mamoulian).
Director Rouben Mamoulian chose one of Broadway's top songwriting duos, Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, to write the score. In a rare move for a film or stage musical, he had them write the songs first, making sure that each lyric related closely to plot and character. He also had Hart write rhymed dialog for selected scenes to define character and advance the plot. Then he put the screenwriters to work. The result was an impressive melding of script and score, perfectly fitting the director's concept of the film.
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The film is filled with great songs by Rodgers and Hart. The score is so good that songs that would normally be the finest in a musical, like "Mimi" and "Love Me Tonight" are completely overshadowed by two of the greatest songs that the legendary team ever wrote: the waltz-like "Lover" and the epic "Isn't It Romantic?" Rogers was one of the greatest composers the American stage or cinema has seen, and Hart's The lyrics were astonishing, ranging from nonchalant to poetic.
One can only imagine the immense enthusiasm Rodgers & Hart had for this project: the possibilities of cinema – defying time, place, and reason as was never possible for them onstage and they successfully fused centuries of stage artistry and artifice with that unique newcomer, film.
Songlist:
"That's the Song of Paree" - a breathtaking opening scene of the sights and sounds of Paris woven into a song of celebration for the City of Light.
"How are You?" - Maurice's greetings as he walks to work at his shop.
"Isn't it Romantic?" the iconic song in which various people define romance.
"Lover" - beautifully sung by Jeannette, but comedically, to her horse, not Maurice.
"Mimi" - one of Chevalier's signature songs, but also sung by the inhabitants of the castle.
"A Woman Needs Something Like That" - sung by Jeannette and her doctor (Joseph Cawthorn), that makes the case for sex for the widowed Princess.
"Love Me Tonight" - a love ballad for Maurice and Jeanette.
"The Son of a Gun is Nothing But a Tailor" - a hilarious complaint of being duped by a commoner by castle residents and staff.
"Isn't it Romantic?" was an Ear Worm, a popular old-time term for a song you find yourself singing or humming repeatedly. This was true for audiences and filmmakers alike, as the catchy song was used repeatedly in films over the next 70 years: Hot Saturday (1933), Skylark (1941), The Lady Eve (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), A Foreign Affair (1948), Sabrina (1954), The Day of the Locust (1975), The Out-of-Towners (1999).
"Mimi" became Chevalier's signature song and calling card. "Isn't it Romantic?" was recorded by a multitude of vocal artists and jazz groups, including Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, rod Stewart, Mel Torme, Bill Evans Trio, Johnny Mathis, Carmen McRae, Jack Jones, Michael Feinstein, Coleman Hawkins and Peggy Lee.
"Lover" was covered by The Supremes, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, the Dennis Wilson Quartet, Jack Teagarden and others.
THE CAST:
Maurice Chevalier as Maurice Courtelin and Jeanette MacDonald as Princess Jeanette, with Myrna Loy as Comtesse Valentine supported by an ensemble cast of accomplished comedians:
Charles Ruggles as Vicomte Gilbert de Varéze, Charles Butterworth as Comte de Savignac,
C. Aubrey Smith as the Duc d'Artelines,
Elizabeth Patterson as First Aunt,
Ethel Griffies as Second Aunt,
Blanche Frederici as Third Aunt,
Joseph Cawthorne as Dr. Armand de Fontinac,
Robert Greig as Major Domo Flammand and
Bert Roach as Émile.
Cast member links and descriptions are at Wikepedia and IMDB.
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Maurice Chevalier, with his trademark thick accent, straw hat and cane, came to epitomize – for Americans – the sauve French male. Beginning with café and club gigs in Paris, Chevalier's show business career spanned 60 years and he worked in film for 40 years — The Love Parade, One Hour with You, Love Me Tonight and The Merry Widow in the 1930s, and after WWII followed by Love in the Afternoon, Gigi and Can-Can.
In LOVE ME TONIGHT, at age 28, this isn't the prim and proper Jeanette MacDonald in full operatic mode seen in the later stages of her career, so we're spared those interminable duets with Nelson Eddy. Here she spends a lot of time in lingerie, with dialog and songs alternating between breezily comedic and soulful.
For example, in the hilarious balcony scene Jeanette literally breaks up on screen when droll Charles Butterworth falls off his ladder and "breaks his flute" – all of which fortunately Mamoulian kept in the final cut.
Rouben Mamoulian used to date Myrna Loy and he borrowed her from MGM where she was typically cast as an "exotic" — a villainous Asian femme fatale. In LOVE ME TONIGHT, he thought she would do well with a comedic part, a prescient move as Myrna later enjoyed great success with high comedy – The Thin Man, Cheaper by the Dozen, etc..
Although her role is small, 26-year-old Myrna Loy as the man-crazy Countess Valentine, proved to be a scene-stealer with some great satiric lines. A couple examples:
After the Princess Jeanette faints, Valentine is asked if she could go for a doctor. Her reply: "Certainly. Bring him right in."
MacDonald: "Tell me, do you ever think of anything but men, dear?"
Loy: "Oh, yes."
MacDonald: "Of what?"
Loy: "Schoolboys."
CENSORSHIP and the Motion Picture Production Code:
What is pre-Code Hollywood? Broadly framed, this is an era in motion picture history dating from the advent of "talkies" (films with sound) in 1927 to the mandatory enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code in July 1934. While films were censored in this era, they were not as severely censored as the films that came after enforcement in 1934.
Equally important, this time in our history witnessed powerful elements that shaped American culture. For example: the concept of peace between world wars, and general prosperity before 1930; the stock market crash and Great Depression; prohibition, public disregard for same, speakeasies, bootlegging and resultant violent crime; increased world travel and greater awareness of other nationalities and ethnicities; the drought, Dustbowl and national migration,etc.
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In literature, music and stage plays, as well as film, Americans embraced social realism, exploring topics that had long been subdued: double standards applying to women; diversity in human sexuality, slavery, emancipation and race relations, the emergence of organized crime, violence against women and in general, and more.
In the film industry, there were clearly some who pursued profit through exploitative and salacious content. But there were many more who focused on cogent exploration of important topics and creation of new filmmaking techniques.
At this time films were not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Censorship varied from state to state and often city to city, creating excessive expense in compliance for the studios. So, the distributors and studios hired retired Postmaster General William Hays to help avoid government censorship by creating guidelines that studios would follow when making movies. With the Great Recession came the creation in 1930 of the Motion Picture Production Code (MPPC) by Father Daniel Lord and Martin Quigley and a scheduled mandatory enforcement date of July 1, 1934.
A number of allegedly objectionable films triggered the formation of the Catholic Legion of Decency with its own standards and condemnations. Joseph Breen (aka the Hitler of Hollywood), who assumed command of the Motion Picture Production Code office in 1934, had close ties to the Catholic Legion and strongly pushed the requirement that all films receive a MPPC Seal of Approval, effective July 1, 1934.
The net effect was that a handful of powerful individuals told the American film industry and the American people what stories could be told, how characters and circumstances must be portrayed and how dilemmas must be resolved – in other words, these czars alone determined what was morally important and acceptable.
As part of a mass dumbing-down, abolished were ethnic traits, references to blacks, homosexuals, Jews and other minorities, honest sexual behavior of all persuasions, lively wisecracks and married couples sleeping in the same bed.
The Motion Picture Production Code remained in effect for 34 years, until 1968. In the documentary film Complicated Women, Mark Viera summarized the impact of the MPP Code: "It kept mature thought from an audience that craved it."
Lean more at the pre-code.com website, links below.
RESOURCES
In researching this film, I've discovered an immense amount of essays, articles and reviews. l had little idea that LOVE ME TONIGHT was universally held in such high regard and am indebted to all for their perspective and analysis. – Tim Swallow, CWC
Many excellent LOVE ME TONIGHT materials at TCM (Turner Classic Movies):
Introduction
The Essentials
The Big Idea behind the Film
Behind the Camera
Critic's Corner
Pop Culture
Trivia & Fun Facts
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% Fresh
Audience Reviews
Wonders in the Dark
Danny Reid's PRE-CODE.COM, an excellent source of Hollywood Pre-Code and censorship info and reviews of films from that era:
What is Pre-Code Hollywood?
Pre-Code Timeline
Pre-Code Glossary
Love Me Tonight Review
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