tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post2014491127917120811..comments2023-04-03T05:11:10.672-07:00Comments on THE MOVIE PROJECTOR: Love Me Tonight (1932)R. D. Finchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05045080274131718843noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post-88181218550424609602010-06-22T09:02:14.878-07:002010-06-22T09:02:14.878-07:00An arrow reaches it's destination to the "...An arrow reaches it's destination to the "Hart":<br /><br />I've never met you, yet never doubt, dear;<br />I can't forget you, I've thought you out, dear.<br />I know your profile and I know the way you kiss,<br />just the things I miss on a night like this.<br />If dreams are made of imagination<br />I'm not afraid of my own creation.<br />With all my heart, my heart is here for you to take.<br />Why should I quake? I'm not awake.<br /><br />Isn't it romantic?<br />Music in the night, a dream that can be heard.<br />Isn't it romantic?<br /><br />Moving shadows write the oldest magic word.<br />I hear the breezes playing in the trees above<br />while all the world is saying you were meant for love.<br />Isn't it romantic<br />merely to be young on such a night as this?<br />Isn't it romantic?<br />Every note that's sung is like a lover's kiss.<br />Sweet symbols in the moonlight,<br />do you mean that I will fall in love per chance?<br />Isn't it romance?<br /><br />My face is glowing, I'm energetic.<br />The art of sewing I found poetic.<br />My needle punctuates the rhythm of romance.<br />I don't give a stitch if I don't get rich.<br />A custom tailor who has no custom<br />is like a sailor, no one will trust 'em.<br />But there is magic in the music of my shears.<br />I shed no tears, lend me your ears.<br /><br />Isn't it romantic?<br />Soon I will have found some girl that I adore.<br />Isn't it romantic?<br />While I sit around my love can scrub the floor.<br />She'll kiss me every hour or she'll get the sack<br />and when I take a shower she can scrub my back.<br />Isn't it romantic?<br />On a moonlight night she'll cook me onion soup.<br />Kiddies are romantic<br />and if we don't fight we soon will have a troupe.<br />We'll help the population,<br />it's a duty that we owe to dear old France.<br />Isn't it romance?Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795601141833900338.post-34923475640546621872010-06-22T08:59:50.168-07:002010-06-22T08:59:50.168-07:00"But to my mind the greatest American musical..."But to my mind the greatest American musical of this period is Love Me Tonight, and the significance of its innovations not just to musicals, but to cinema in general, cannot be overstated."<br /><br />To my mind too R.D.! It's in fact one of the greatest film musicals in the entire history of the cinema, and it's one I have championed for many years. Your numerical lead-in there is fabulous and it superlatively frames the dazzling cinematic components of Mamoulian's supreme masterpiece. Similarly, your examination of the film's brilliant Paris opening (which segues into the song "That's the Song of Paree") is a classic itself. <br /><br />You and I are also on the very same page with the deliriously infectious "Isn't It Romantic?, which is absolutely the best Rodgers and Hart song, and one of the greatest songs in movie musical history, and a peerless of example of what was lost when Hart succumbed to severe drinking problems. That's not to contend, however that Rodgers didn't subsequently pair up with an even greater collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein II, in what is rightfully now considered the greatest musical duo in the history of the musical theatre, as I just again was reminded while attending Lincoln Center's glorious production of SOUTH PACIFIC last month (perhaps the iconic pair's most perfect work, arguably with THE KING AND I.)<br /><br />I have always thought the person who wrote the music (as opposed to the one who wrote the lyrics) was the greater contributor, and in this sense Rodgers is the man, but your contention here is still a persuasive one as Hart's wit abd charm is a model of its kind. You are also dead-on to discuss the film's pre-code risque essence, and this contributed mightily to remarkable chemistry, and Maurice Chavalier and Jeanette MacDonald were at the absolute top of their game.<br /><br />Who needs Astaire and Rogers when we have LOVE ME TONIGHT?<br /><br />Just kidding of course, but I must say you have brightened up my Tuesday morning here with one of the most magnificent and creative essays I've ever read at this site or any other for that matter. It's a telling reminder to all of us how talented the proprietor here is, and how diverse the scope reaches.<br /><br />I am most obliged, as I'm sure your appreciative readership are. Just think, it's Orson Welles, Richard Lester, Rene Clair, George Stevens and Ernst Lubitsch all deliciously bundled together.<br /><br />Pure bliss.Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.com