The Love Parade.

Review #1881: The Love Parade.

Cast: 

Maurice Chevalier (Count Alfred Renard), Jeanette MacDonald (Queen Louise), Lupino Lane (Jacques), Lillian Roth (Lulu), Eugene Pallette (Minister of War), E. H. Calvert (Sylvanian Ambassador), Edgar Norton (Master of Ceremonies), and Lionel Belmore (Prime Minister) Produced and Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (#1026 - The Shop Around the Corner and #1358 - To Be or Not to Be)

Review: 

"I made sometimes pictures which were not up to my standard, but then it can only be said about a mediocrity that all his works live up to his standard."

So, here we are with an example of film directors honing their craft with the dawn of sound in features. Ernst Lubitsch had been a director after honing his craft in the early 1910s as an actor in his native Germany, doing so with a mix of comedies and historical dramas before notice abroad led him to leave for Hollywood in 1922. He directed for various studios over the next two decades, and one wouldn't be surprised that his first part-sound film in The Patriot (1928) earned him an Academy Award nomination. The Love Parade, which premiered in late 1929 but not released to the public until January of 1930, is his first true sound feature. Go figure that his first sound film featured two singers for actors. Chevalier became a performer in his native France since the turn of the 20th century, with only a stint as a prisoner of war in World War I serving to interrupt his career (apparently his two years as a POW is where he learned English). He did appear in a number of films before this one, which included Innocents of Paris (1929), but it is this film that made him a key name, although he had to be convinced by Lubitsch that his voice (a working-class one) would fit the style that Lubitsch wanted with a fantasy-land European sounding country. As for MacDonald, she was in the business of performances since she was a child, complete with touring in kid shows before becoming a teenager and soon doing stints on Broadway. Strangely enough, the way to her becoming involved with this film came from a screen test for a film she wasn't allowed to do (due to contract), since Lubitsch happened to look through old screen tests and found the one he wanted with her, with this being her debut feature. MacDonald and Chevalier would do a couple of films together (most notably with The Merry Widow (1934), which had Lubitsch as director).

The film is based on the play The Prince Consort, a French play written by Jules Chancel and Leon Xanrof (which in turn had been a Broadway play in 1905). Guy Bolton and Ernest Vadja wrote the screenplay for the film. Lubitsch made a musical different from the early approaches of doing a sound movie that folks saw with The Broadway Melody (1929) in having songs performed in front of a static camera. In other words: sometimes to tell a story, you tell it with a song, complete with a solid supporting cast to back them up in amusement. When it comes to good-natured escapism, you can't go wrong with something like this, one that makes for a solid achievement of entertainment. It does so with gusto of energy from its director that gives its main stars things to do beyond just being vehicles to sing, as their chemistry together proves quite refreshing. It is a romance of assessment, one where the wooing isn't as important as the process of finding out just what love really means to people living in a royal place where everyone seems to have their noses in business. Chevalier makes a quality rogue to follow with from the very first sequence we see and hear of him in the 107-minute feature, which involves him dealing with a scorned lady and even sees him address the audience for a moment (singing won't come for quite a while, and he isn't even the first one to sing) before fake weapons get used for playful fun. He has a sly charisma that seemed exotic for audiences in need of someone like him in a time for new sounds and charms. Of course, MacDonald isn't to be lost in the shuffle, because her self-assured charm and collected confidence make a worthy match, one who can sing as well as she can delegate with him in graceful charm. Being a royal is one thing, being a happy royal is another, one might say. Lane and the others (including the distinct voice of Pallette) make worthwhile contributions in chuckles along with a bit of singing that make it a splendid romp across romance and the lines between being just someone's spouse and being in love. In that sense, it works out quite well, complete with having Lubitsch find ways to get around early sound quirks, complete with directing two couples to sing the same song in alternative places by having two sets built (orchestra between them off camera) that he could then piece together with editing. As a whole, it may move within the expectations that encapsulate romantic musicals, but it still manages to move with resourceful timing and pace from cast and crew that worked beyond the dreams of what one thought sound movies could be that still seems engaging today. For that, Lubitsch seems just as interesting to look back now more than ever.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Gigi (1958).

Review #1397: Gigi.

Cast: 
Leslie Caron (Gilberte "Gigi"), Maurice Chevalier (Honoré Lachaille), Louis Jourdan (Gaston Lachaille), Hermione Gingold (Madame Alvarez), Eva Gabor (Liane d'Exelmans), Jacques Bergerac (Sandomir), Isabel Jeans (Aunt Alicia), and John Abbott (Manuel) Directed by Vincente Minnelli (#405 - The Reluctant Debutante, #510 - Father of the Bride, #620 - Lust for Life, #878 - The Long, Long Trailer, #986 - An American in Paris, and #1031 - Meet Me in St. Louis)

Review:
"I feel that a picture that stays with you is made up of a hundred or more hidden things. They’re things that the audience is not conscious of, but that accumulate."

Style can come in many forms, particularly when it comes to film. Vincente Minnelli was a director noted for his style when it came to film, even if his first directorial effort there was when he was already 40 years old. Minnelli's first job after graduating high school was as a window dresser in a department store, but he later jumped to photography an assistant, which helped him spark interest in the theater due to the work being to photograph actors of the theater district of Chicago. In the theater, he started as a designer for costumes and sets before gradually rising to director and moving locations to New York City, and it was his work there that led to a brief and uneventful time with Paramount Pictures in 1937 and a fruitful chance in 1940 with Metro Goldwyn Mayer that lasted for the next two decades. The person credited with discovering and luring him to MGM was lyricist and producer Arthur Freed, who let his directors have mostly free rein while making musicals for the studio for over two decades, with this being the fourth-to-last film from his iconic Freed Unit. It had a considerable amount of hits and attention, with Freed winning two Academy Awards for Best Picture for this and An American in Paris, while Minnelli won an Academy Award for his direction in this film. In a career that spanned from Cabin in the Sky (1943) to A Matter of Time (1976), he had a style to him that served him well in numerous musicals alongside a few comedies and melodramas over the years, which served him significantly well with this film, so who better to accompany a stylish production like this than French ballerina-turned-MGM musical star Leslie Caron, who had starred in Minnelli's An American in Paris earlier to accompany fellow French actors in Jourdan and cabaret singer/entertainer Maurice Chevalier in a production with a good deal of shooting in Paris.

This was an adaptation of the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette, which had already been turned into a film in 1949 in France along with a stage adaptation two years later (which had a young Audrey Hepburn in the role). Alan Jay Lerner wrote the screenplay for the film along with the lyrics while the music was done by Frederick Loewe and arrangement/conduction by Andre Previn. Lerner and Loewe were known already for their collaboration together on theater productions such as Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, and My Fair Lady. These three, alongside Minnelli and Freed, would contribute to the film winning nine Academy Awards (which also included wins for art direction, costume design, cinematography, and editing), while Chevalier received an honorary award. For a film that was found to be appreciated by audiences, it was one that had tinkering before it went into general release, since Lerner and Loewe felt that the pre-screening was a bit too slow with creamy ill-defined music despite audiences rating it favorably. Their appeals to producers for $300,000 to improve the film (with a bluff offer to buy the print for $3 million) led to reshoots (including a re-orchestration), most notably with the "I Remember It Well" number, which was directed by Charles Walters. One also can't forget that the filmmakers had to make sure to approach the subject of courtesans (a word I confess to having to search up) with subtlety. It certainly goes to show the amount of craftsmanship and care it can take to make a grand musical worth viewing, with this being a capable dazzler with something to show for everyone that works itself out effectively enough. Caron excels with charm and innocence, a presence that invites one further without seeming graceless, which also goes to the singing for the character (done by Betty Wand, much to Caron's disappointment) in making these songs come together with warmth. When he is present on screen, Chevalier makes quite an impression on you, a confident and seasoned performance through and through. Jourdan does well in an aimless (or at least bored with a twinkle) but pleasurable balance to Caron, filled with debonair attitude that makes for interesting chemistry. Gingold and Jeans lend a dignified hand in their manner that makes for a few humorous moments (such as during "I Remember It Well", for example). There is a warm quality to the atmosphere of this film, where one almost seems to feel like they are really in Paris with these quirky characters for 115 minutes, from its wonderful costumes to its camerawork. It has endured for over six decades without seeming to require an updated version, timeless in its own right as a key hurrah for musicals in its era and for MGM as a whole for its irresistible charm.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.