Love Me Tonight (1932, Rouben Mamoulian)

Heavily accented Maurice Chevalier (it’s debatable whether he was the inspiration for the voice of Pepe Le Pew) is a tailor who made a bunch of suits for a viscount (Charles Ruggles of “Trouble In Paradise” the same year) who never pays the bills. Maurice goes up to the castle to collect and the viscount, afraid of letting the count & duke know about his debts, fakes that Maurice is a royal visitor. Maurice falls for the princess (Jeanette MacDonald, who starred in some Lubitsch pictures incl. two with Chevalier) and the class warfare begins.

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A bunch of songs but the only ones I remember are the percussive street-life open (one of those things like in “delicatessen” or “dancer in the dark” where everyday sounds form music) and the number near the end, “the son of a gun is nothing but a tailor!”

Cute movie, would watch again. I’m not as blown away as I was prepared to be (one of the 100 greatest films ever, etc) and Katy, as she always does when I pick the musical, said it doesn’t count as a musical.

Myrna Loy:
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