Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

[hearthesilence]

Kino's got this on clearance for $10, so I checked it out. I actually never heard of it until I came across a mention of it sometime around 2001, a few years before it was released on DVD. In retrospect, it's shocking how it fell out-of-print and drifted into obscurity (i.e. very few, if any, students and cinephiles I talked to under 50 knew about it), even after it was added to the National Film Registry in 1990. For a Hollywood film from the early sound era, this is a ridiculously impressive visual tour-de-force. Right from the first opening number, everything from the editing to the camera movements is breathtaking fun. I especially enjoyed "Isn't It Romantic?" - it reminded me a time when I was walking down a strip mall one summer evening and a car casually passed by, blasting Tom Petty's "American Girl." 10-15 seconds later, a bicycle came zipping by in the opposite direction, and the guy riding it was singing another verse from the song. And then about three minutes later, I thought I heard someone whistling the 12-string riff as they were entering a store. I immediately thought, "Wow, it's like being stuck in a musical...what a cool idea, staging a scene where hearing the music from one person inspires someone else to perform it too as they go off on their own way, etc. etc." Wonderful to see Mamoulian having already done that many decades ago.

1932 was probably the sweet-spot of early sound pictures - when sound recording was no longer an obstructive burden on how they shot films, and before Hollywood started censoring themselves, clamping down on the content of their films.

[HerrSchreck]

Now that you've seen that, now move to the better of the two Kino/Uni Mamoulians... APPLAUSE.

This mindblowing release just slipped right under the radar for most cineastes, and yet it remains one of the two or three most impressive cinematic debuts in the whole history of the cinema, right up there w Welles' Kane. When I saw that film I was writhing around in throes of disbelief in complete shock and awe.

Seriously. You can find lots of spots in the forum if you dig, with me going on and on about the initial run of APPLAUSE, CITY STREETS, DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE, LOVE ME TONIGHT, standing as one of the most incredible entres into the cinema the world has seen. Such variety, toes dipping into such vastly different genres, and transcending them all... Musical, crime/gangster, horror, etc.

One of the most restless cameras of the early sound era.

[Tommaso]

I absolutely agree. All of Mamoulian's early films are astonishing for their camerawork and versatility in genre. But much as I love "Applause" (correct title which I messed up originally, see Schreck's post below ) and all the others, personally I think "Love me tonight" is my favourite, for exactly the reasons hearthesilence mentioned. It's such a wonderfully charming and ironic film, making fun of all the clichés the US cinema had of France/Paris, but in spite of this it also manages to be an endearingly romantic film at the same time. There are a lot of showpieces, of course, which also 'quote' film history. The beginning is a clear reference to any city symphony from Ruttmann to Kaufman, and the whole thing is also obviously indebted to the Lubitsch musicals, but perhaps adds a little fairy-tale note to it (yes, I know, Lubitsch certainly had this already, but Mamoulian tops it).

"Love me tonight" is also the first US musical which fully integrates the songs into the plot and uses them to comment on what's going on or move the action forward. This is often credited as Mamoulian's greatest achievement in this film, and while I certainly won't diminish it, let me say that the Germans already did this one or two years earlier, and on a pretty regular basis. So if you want to study a little the origins of this film, look beyond Lubitsch and go straight for Charell's "Der Kongress tanzt", also for one of the most astonishing sequences of a free-wheeling camera you'll ever see anywhere. Another recommendation would be Chevalier in "The Playboy of Paris", a difficult to find film, which however shows him first in this typical Parisian character type - in American cinema, at least - that he perfected in "Love me tonight".

[HerrSchreck]

ASPHALT? I'm guessing you meant APPLAUSE and the Teuton in you just couldn't shake Joe May from your front brain when it comes to late twenties films beginning with the letter A.

ABSCHIED, ALRAUNE, AELITA, ASPHALT, APPLAUSE, ABENTAUER..., L'ATALANTIDE... (slump, head Conk)

As much as the Kino Mamoulians have been overlooked, what's most astonishing to me is how CITY STREETS remains an orphan film and hasn't been put out anywhere beyond the grey market burn-em-and-slap-a-label-on-em companies like Vintage Film Buff. How can the other films before and aft that film, but still within that initial first run of Mam titles have their copyrights renewed, and this with commercial potential second only to Dr J & Mr H, as it stars Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidne at her most jigglingly gorgeous, sit in no man's land? Baffles me.

[lady wakasa]

I love this film.

I first saw it as part of Lubitsch!fest 2003 at Film Forum in NYC, and later got a copy of the Kino disc. And the billing was perfectly true: it's the best Lubitsch not made by Lubitsch. Part of what works so well is how the music is integrated: put together while the script was in process, rather than after filming was (more or less) complete. "Isn't It Romantic," for example, sets up a direct connection between Maurice and Princess Jeannette (LOL) at the beginning of the film and before they actually meet. Not just music, but part of the story.

The only other film I can think of off the top of my head for which the music was a part of the initial construction is Mishima: A Life in Four Parts. And it worked just was well, there.

[Tommaso]

ASPHALT? I'm guessing you meant APPLAUSE and the Teuton in you just couldn't shake Joe May from your front brain when it comes to late twenties films beginning with the letter A.

ABSCHIED, ALRAUNE, AELITA, ASPHALT, APPLAUSE, ABENTAUER..., L'ATALANTIDE... (slump, head Conk)

Not to speak of ARIANE and the German version of ATLANTIC...
You're right, of course. I've just corrected my mistake

[PillowRock]

This would be one of my first wishes for a movie to have a copy of its complete, original version turn up somewhere.

I still find it kinda astounding that studios, when they wanted to do a Code-era re-release of a Pre-Code film, didn't keep at least one archival print of the original versions. Short sighted, penny wise / pound foolish idiocy.