One Paragraph Movie Review: Love Me Tonight

Three hundred and thirty-seventh film: Love Me Tonight, a 1932 romantic comedy musical and Maurice Chevalier vehicle packed full of Rodgers and Hart bangers. This is a despite movie, in that despite multiple things going against it I was utterly entertained for an hour and a half. Despite the fact that it’s a musical. Despite the people-from-different-social-classes-fall-in-love-when-one-of-them-pretends-to-be-someone-else trope. Despite the singing-through-a-fan vibrato of leading lady Jeanette MacDonald. Despite Chevalier breaking the fourth wall and staring straight at the camera without blinking whenever he sings. He’s a talented but broke Parisian tailor. She’s a lonely, constantly fainting princess. He sings at her and makes her some clothes, she falls in love with him and chases him on a horse. I should have hated it. I didn’t. The whole thing is about how charming Maurice’s character, Maurice, is, and dammit if I wasn’t charmed. Two and three- quarter tape measures across the nipples out of five.