Movies
LOVE ME TONIGHT – 1932 Musical Screens at The Hi-Pointe Saturday Morning
“A peach must be eaten, a drum must be beaten, and a woman needs something like that!”
LOVE ME TONIGHT plays at The Hi-Pointe Theater ( 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117) Saturday, July 11th at 10:30am as part of their Classic Film Series
I’ve never seen the 1932 Paramount production LOVE ME TONIGHT, a classic mix of comedy, romance, song and satire with a first-rate cast, but I will this weekend. The story takes place in France around the time the film was made. It’s an early musical that employs an unusual script device in places – rhyming dialog exchanges that often lead into song (think the early ‘Musical Novelty’ Stooges short The Woman Haters). LOVE ME TONIGHT is apparently a satire of French royalty and high society households. Its characters are either the idle rich leading empty, hedonistic lives, or their compliant, consenting household staff. Maurice Courtelin, a Parisian tailor (Maurice Chevalier), is owed a great sum of money by a viscount (Charles Ruggles). Stalling for time, the titled but penniless nobleman moves Maurice into the family chateau and passes him off as a baron. The beguiling Maurice soon charms the entire aristocratic household, except for the haughty Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald), who remains suspicious of him. But suspicion eventually gives way to love. From the reviews I’ve read, it seems that much of the pre-code dialog in LOVE ME TONIGHT is rife with double entendres and that this is a musical worthy of rediscovery more than 80 years after it was made. LOVE ME TONIGHT is directed by Russian emigrant director/writer Rouben Mamoulian who gave us such diverse films as DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931), MARK OF ZORRO (1940), and SILK STOCKINGS (1957). There are many famous Rodgers & Hart tunes in the film sung by Chevalier, MacDonald and by the cast (that includes Myrna Loy), that include “The Song of Paree,” “Isn’t it Romantic,” “Lover,” “Mimi,” “A Woman Needs Something Like That,” “Mimi,” “I’m an Apache,” “Love Me Tonight,” and “The Son-Of-A-Gun is Nothing But A Tailor.” I’m curious. I’ll be there and so should you.
So don’t miss LOVE ME TONIGHT when plays as part of The Hi-Pointe Theater’s Saturday Morning Classic Film Series! Doors open at 10am LOVE ME TONIGHT begins at 10:30! Admission is only $5!
The Hi-Pointe is located at 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117. Their website can be found HERE
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