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LOVE ME TONIGHT
Directed & Produced by: Rouben Mamoulian.
Written by: Samuel Hoffenstein, Waldemar Young & George Marion, Jr.
Director of Photography: Victor Milner.
Music by: Richard Rodgers. Lyrics: Lorenz Hart
Released by: Kino International.
Country of Origin: USA. 89 min. Not Rated.
With: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald & Myrna Loy.

DVD Features: Commentary by: Miles Kreuger. Censorship Records. Production Documents. Maurice Chevalier sings "Louise". Jeanette MacDonald sings "Love Me Tonight". Screenplay Excerpts of Deleted Scenes. Photo/Promotional Gallery. Original Theatrical Trailer.

This 1932 landmark musical is a must for musical comedy fans. In their third pairing, Maurice Chevalier plays a suave tailor masquerading as a nobleman, who wins the love of a princess, the patrician Jeanette MacDonald. The light-as-air script is filled with double entendres, and the direction is as sophisticated as anything by Ernst Lubitsch. Myrna Loy, in her first aristocratic role, offers a sharp comedic turn as a woman on the prowl. In a departure in its day, the musical score - featuring the standard, “Isn’t It Romantic” - is integrated into the text. And its fluid cinematography breaks free from the static camera work of earlier musicals.

DVD Extras: The informative commentary by Miles Kreuger, founder and president of the Institute of the American Musical Inc., offers background information from everyone from Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart to Armenian-born director Rouben Mamoulian. Kreuger justly sings the praises of the hilarious supporting cast, most of whom were Broadway veterans. Interesting tidbit: writer Waldemar Young was a descendent of Mormon pioneer Brigham Young. The censorship records reveal lists of suggested and/or required cuts to prevent the risqué humor turning into the suggestive. One of the concerns of the Hays Office was the possibility of the film offending French Royalists (the film has light references to Bastille Day). Alas, among the cuts were the lyrics, “A Woman needs something like that” and a shot of Loy in a negligee. KT
February 8, 2004

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