Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

While I've previously seen the original To Be or Not to Be, part of me feels this might have been the first time I've seen a real Ernst Lubitsch film. That's because this one was made before the Production Code of 1934 that forbid certain material from being depicted for several decades was put into effect. So we get to see what the Maurice Chevalier character did to humiliate himself in the beginning scenes before being teamed romantically with the Queen of a fictional country. She's played by Jeanette MacDonald in her film debut. And while we don't hear anything graphic, it's quite clear what kind of material Ms. MacDonald is reading when she looks at the past exploits of Chevalier in her manuscript. This was another early talkie, in fact Lubitsch's first, that didn't have the stilted quality of many of those other ones made at this period and reading that this was shot silent first before the voices and sound were post-dubbed was fascinating to read on this site. While it took awhile, I did warm to the kind of give-and-take of the two leads though I felt the picture really came to life when the help, played by Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth, were doing their own slapstick numbers in remarkable contrast to the more dignified singing of Chevalier and MacDonald though Chevalier himself also provided some lively moments both during his numbers and some of his solo scenes as well as those with Ms. MacDonald. Oh, and reading this was the first integrated movie musical was also a fascinating find for me since for the past several weeks, I've been reviewing this genre of movies in chronological order in order to prepare for the current release of the latest-Les Miserables. So on that note, The Love Parade was interesting to watch both historically and entertainment-wise.

Sure, the talkies knocked the cinema industry for six, but we rallied well, and one of the greatest assets in our armoury was the musical. The early sound features could appear stilted and static, but with songs to carry the narrative along, the new medium could really come into its own.It's sometimes been claimed that there were no "integrated" musicals - the ordinary-people-bursting-into-song type - before the 1940s. This is of course nonsense as any 30s musical buff should know, and in fact The Love Parade is the first example of such on the screen. But the tradition is older still, and this picture is only really a cinematic update of the operetta, a popular stage format most often associated with Europe. Appropriately enough The Love Parade has a light-hearted tone and Ruritanian backdrop, and is helmed by that most Ruritanian of directors, Mr Ernst Lubitsch. But this being the "pre-code" era, and Lubitsch being his usual sly self, it is also a rather modern and uninhibited affair. In this world, bed-hopping is the norm and marriage is the exception. It's all conveyed with crackling wit and subtlety, from the cheeky dialogue of Guy Bolton and Ernest Vajda (such as Chevalier's illegitimate descent from royalty being described as "from a good family") and Lubitsch's own smart little constructions with the implied rather than the stated.In many ways The Love Parade harks back to Lubitsch's Berlin comedies from a decade earlier. It is filled with many of the absurd visual gags that characterised the director's German output, such as the unfeasibly large heap of apple cores that Chevalier has amassed during his garden sulk. It may be that with the coming of sound, Lubitsch was being careful to keep things image-based and not let too much verbal humour slow the story down. Whether or not this is the case, these silly sight gags are very welcome. Certainly, in the earliest scenes there seems to be a deliberate reference to this still being a primarily visual comedy. Even for viewers who don't speak French, the opening routine is very funny. Chevalier's occasional English asides, addressed directly to the camera, function like intertitles.But the aim here is not to pretend the sound revolution isn't going on. After all, this is a musical! The Love Parade in fact makes the most of sound. We are treated to the heavenly melodies of composer Victor Schertzinger, who oddly enough had a day job as a film director. Lubitsch does not shoot the musical numbers with as much zip as Rouben Mamoulian would for the sublime Love Me Tonight, but he nevertheless shows some musical sensibilities, keeping the camera back when a song swells up, and showing off each character's performance within the song as if it were a dance.And of course with the coming of sound we get a wave of sound-friendly stars. Maurice Chevalier did not have the voice of a crooner, but he was a true performer. With superb control over his movements, inventive little twitches and fluorishes that make him uniquely interesting, and impeccable comic timing, he is like a cartoon character come to life. He is absolutely enchanting to watch and listen to. Jeanette MacDonald is more in the vein of an opera singer, and as such while her voice is beautiful her words are hard to pick out. Still, she can certainly act, and has the comedienne's touch, playing the queen as a spoiled little girl, a little like Miranda Richardson as Elizabeth I in Blackadder. It's just a pity, what with the misogynist plot, her character doesn't have the authority of Elizabeth. Chevalier's prince consort could do with being reminded of what happened to the Earl of Essex.And let us not forget the supporting roles played by Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth. These two clowns are a delight to watch, although they do highlight the lack of confidence producers had in these early days of sound. The tendency was to turn these early talkies into a kind of variety show, packing diversions in between the chunks of plot. I don't begrudge Lupino and Roth's appearance because they are great entertainers who are now rarely seen, but their inclusion seems somewhat tacked on (Roth, despite playing the queen's maid, appears in no scenes with MacDonald) and Chevalier and MacDonald could easily have carried the picture unaided. Lubitsch and co. would realise this, and successive Paramount musicals are shorter and more streamlined, with just a little more substance.

It's Lubitsch, it's got songs, what more do you want. Alas, it's also got Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier but you can't have everything. It's actually quite good, especially for 1929; okay, the songs could be better but the idea of integrating song and story was innovative and though Mamoulian did it better three years later this was clearly his blueprint - AND he had a score by Rodgers and Hart. Victor Schertzinger was a fine composer and later turned director and Clifford Grey was a competent lyricist so that leaves the story, a twist, one of several at the time, on The Merry Widow, which Lubitsch would film with the same two leads in 1934. It remains a fascinating record of Lubitsch's first talkie and early musical film.

It was really the film that established Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald as a musical comedy team - the first one of the American talkie period. They would make four films in the end (THE LOVE PARADE, ONE HOUR WITH YOU, LOVE ME TONIGHT, and THE MERRY WIDOW). Four first rate early musicals... and they did not like each other! Jeanette rebuffed Chevalier's attempts at a closer relationship (she only liked Gene Raymond, whom she later married). He considered her a prude and hypocrite as a result. So, despite their stunning screen chemistry and string of successes their partnership faded. Nelson Eddy was waiting in the wings for her to find the proper partner.Chevalier is a Count who has been returned from a diplomatic post for a sexual scandal. The country is ruled by Queen Jeanette, and when she meets the charming Maurice she falls for him. They marry, but he finds that (under the guidance of her Prime Minister - Lionel Belmore - and his cabinet) she puts him aside on matters of ruling the state. Chevalier, normally the aggressor in sexual matters and in putting his own ideas out, does not like the self-image of being the boy-toy husband of the ruler of his native country. His idea would be more like that of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who became her chief adviser on political matters after their marriage. Here, however, while everyone is polite to him, they make it clear that constitutionally he is not to be involved in running the government.The film is a charming one - full of those "Lubitsch touches". For example, Chevalier's growing anger and impatience at his political uselessness is first shown when he asks one of the courtiers (who has just politely put him in his place), "Do you understand French?" "No, I'm afraid I don't.", says the courtier. Chevalier, with perfect timing, shoots out a long, furious diatribe of French, which one can tell is gutter language, to show his fury at his position - much to the dismay of the courtier. Later on, when the Prime Minister also puts down Chevalier's attempts at advice, he smiles and asks the Prime Minister, "Excuse me, but do you speak French?" Belmore looks at him puzzled, "Yes I do speak French." With an eat dirt smile, Chevalier says, "What a pity!" In the end, it is a financial crisis (which with typical Lubitsch humor can only depend on the foreign investors in Sylvanian securities, all of whom have to observe the reactions of the Afghan Ambassador - bearded Russ Powell - to a court function) that gives Chevalier his chance. Chevalier will only show his true love for his wife if she and the cabinet give him a voice in public affairs like Prince Albert had. And they give in.It would not be the last visit Hollywood paid to Sylvania. Unlike other Balkan pseudo-states, it actually reappeared four years later, though under more "sinister" circumstances. In 1933 the Sylvanian Ambassador to a neighboring country tried to use underhanded means to bring about it's annexation by his homeland. However, Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) did not count upon the Dictator of Freedonia (Rufus T. Firefly - Groucho Marx) and his three brothers to force him to surrender in a barrage of vegetables and fruit in DUCK SOUP.