Love Me Tonight
Screening on Film
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
With Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles.
US, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 96 min.
Print source: HFA
With Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles.
US, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 96 min.
Print source: HFA
While most directors in Hollywood were still attempting to adapt proscenium stage productions into movie musicals, Rouben Mamoulian was pioneering a fluid form of film operetta that has rarely been matched. Love Me Tonight reprises Lubitsch’s previous pairing of French actor Chevalier with singer-dancer MacDonald in a romantic musical comedy in which Mamoulian’s innovative techniques revitalize a familiar story line. Chevalier is cast as the "best tailor in Paris," whose energetic rendition of the Rodgers and Hart tune "Isn’t It Romantic?" catches the ear of a haughty princess (MacDonald).