Love Me Tonight Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Love Me Tonight Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 10, 2024

Rodgers and Hammerstein are often credited with "reinventing" musical theater with a little show originally known as Away We Go!, but which may be better remembered under its revised name of Oklahoma! . Most fans of musical theater know that both Rodgers and Hammerstein had already begun to stretch the boundaries of musical theater with some (no pun intended) noted prior collaborators, including Jerome Kern for Hammerstein (Show Boat) and Lorenz Hart for Rodgers (Pal Joey). What may have escaped some notice is that Rodgers and Hart were also responsible for some thrilling early film musicals, and Love Me Tonight is in its own way(s) arguably as inventively innovative in the film medium as anything either of the celebrated composer lyricist teams did for the stage. Love Me Tonight was produced in the still early days of "talkies", and one of its most captivating elements is its refusal to keep the camera and/or performers "tied down", giving the film some surprising if at times subliminal energy due to the peripatetic proclivities offered by director Rouben Mamoulian, who had rather amazingly just come off of helming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

If the score and "integration" of songs into "book" (or in this instance, screenplay) in Love Me Tonight is decidedly forward thinking, as is Mamoulian's staging of several sequences, the basic setup of the story is hoary, old school stuff typically found in operetta, with a "commoner" male (Maurice Chevalier) falling in love with a "royal" female (Jeannette MacDonald). You could almost imagine some stalwart of that earlier form like Friml, Romberg or Herbert tackling something like this and providing a colorful, quasi-"European" song score. In that regard, Rodgers and Hart's work is beautifully contemporary, with some absolutely amazing harmonic changes and clever lyrics that have kept several songs from the score, including Isn't It Romantic?, Lover, and Mimi, permanently inscribed in the annals of the Great American Songbook. (Music theory geeks are especially encouraged to look at Rodgers' changes in Lover, which are an object lesson in "twisting" so-called ii-V changes in an almost pretzel like way. This same approach of beginning with a major 7th chord and then segueing a tritone away to a ii-V change would rather interestingly crop up in some famous nascent Bossa Nova songs like Valle's Summer Samba and Menescal's My Little Boat.)

It's perhaps salient to note that Rouben Mamoulian directed the first Broadway versions of both Oklahoma! and Carousel, and he also was the original stage director for another integrated book musical, Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Lost in the Stars, all of which may simultaneously highlight his facility with musicals, but also perhaps spark a bit of interest in that those three shows have "darker" elements that are nowhere to be found in the bright and breezy Love Me Tonight. In that regard, it may be relevant that all three of those linked musicals were based on pre-existing material, with Hammerstein providing the book for his two shows, and Anderson providing the book (along with lyrics, a la Hammerstein) for the Weill production.

While Love Me Tonight in fact also was culled from a pre-existing work, a play called Le Tailleur au château, that seems to have been a quasi-farce in the vaunted French tradition. While I haven't been able to track down an online copy of the play, most sources indicate that one way or the other, this adaptation was "loosely" based on the stage piece, which may further indicate that screenwriters Samuel Hoffenstein, George Marion Jr., and Waldemar Young weren't especially bound to any source for their surprisingly contemporary feeling and consistently witty writing.

There are any number of standout sequences in the film, but for those who pay attention to things like editing (both video and sound), the opening vignette, built out of "everyday" sounds of people waking up and starting their days is a wonder, and as is discussed in some of the supplements, the kind of amazing staging of Isn't It Romantic? is absolutely remarkable for such an early musical production. The supporting cast is amazing and includes such legends as Charles Ruggles, Myrna Loy and C. Aubrey Smith. A trio of "aunts" is hilariously reminiscent of whatever the musical comedy equivalent of the witches from Macbeth might be. Some collectors of Criterion releases may recall the old DVD set Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals: The Love Parade / The Smiling Lieutenant / One Hour with You / Monte Carlo, and this film will certainly be an apt companion piece, albeit not necessarily only because of its star duo of Chevalier and MacDonald. Enterprising readers can ferret out an older review I did of that Lubitsch set for another site many years ago.

Love Me Tonight Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Love Me Tonight is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Powerhouse Films' Indicator imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Powerhouse's pretty lavish insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

Love Me Tonight was restored by Powerhouse Films from Universal's 2019 HD remaster, created from a 4K scan of a 35mm dupe negative print. The film's original mono soundtrack was remastered at the same time.

While this is easily the best I've ever seen Love Me Tonight look on a home video release, the above verbiage may indicate that there are simply some built in limitations that some ardent videophiles may spot, including some pretty rough looking moments in passing (see screenshot 19), which admittedly can at least at times be tied to opticals like dissolves, but which may have also sprung from some of the post-code edits imposed on the film (this version is shorn of several minutes from the original release, footage that is deemed lost). Segues in particular, both dissolves, but also fade in and fade outs, can occasionally show anomalies like warped frames or slight instability. All of these niggling qualms aside, there's a beautifully organic look to the presentation, with a nicely resolved grain field, and (again aside from some passing issues, many during opticals) contrast is secure. Detail levels tend to ebb and flow depending on how close Mamoulian chooses to get to his performers.

Love Me Tonight Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Love Me Tonight features an LPCM Mono track that is, somewhat like the video side of things, encumbered by some built in limitations that simply need to be accepted. The fundamentals of the track are secure, with no major damage to report in the form of distortion, dropouts or things like pops and/or clicks, but the entire track just can't escape the sound of the technologies of the time, which can lead to a somewhat thin, boxy sound, especially during some of the musical moments, though everything is certainly more than listenable. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Love Me Tonight Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme


• Isn't It Romantic? (HD; ) is an appreciation by Geoff Andrew, who may spell his first name incorrectly (joke), but is still full of interesting information about Mamoulian and the film.


• Hollywood on Parade: Maurice Chevalier (HD; 2:06) is a kind of promotional short for the film.


• Hollywood on Parade: Jeanette MacDonald (HD; 2:19) follows suit.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:43)


• Image Gallery (HD)

Additionally, the keepcase features a reversible sleeve, but kind of interestingly the only real difference is the verbiage on the back cover above the listing of what's on the disc (one has a repeat of the trailer's "a triumph of screen artistry", the other a more generic brief synopsis. A really nicely appointed insert booklet with a number of interesting essays (as well as some archival material from Mamoulian himself) is also included.

Love Me Tonight Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Love Me Tonight is a sweet and lively film that comes off as surprisingly contemporary feeling in any number of ways. Sadly, the Academy Award for Best Song hadn't yet been introduced at the time of this film's original theatrical exhibition, otherwise it's impossible not to think of Isn't It Romantic? or Lover taking home the prize that year. Technical merits are generally solid with an understanding that there are some inherited limitations to the source. Supplements are outstanding. Highly recommended.