kidboots Ernst Lubitsch was at his wits end in trying to find a leading lady for his first talking picture which was going to star Maurice Chevalier, the discovery of the year. He needed someone who was young, could sing and dance, look regal enough to be a Queen but ravishing enough to wear a skimpy nightgown. He had almost decided on Bebe Daniels but then saw a screen test of a former chorus girl who had been bought to Hollywood as a discovery of Richard Dix - Jeanette MacDonald. Her work consisted of a couple of second rate Broadway shows but with Lubitsch to guide her, she was perfection!!!With champagne bottles, the Eiffel Tower and dancing showgirls as a montage, the scene is set in Paris as dashing playboy Count Alfred Renard (Maurice Chevalier) has a narrow escape from the husband of his latest mistress - "She's terribly jealous" Chevalier says, in a typical audience aside. He and his loyal valet (Lupino Lane) bid adieu to Paris "Paris, Still Stay the Same", as the song is carried on by his score of female admirers - even the dogs have a chorus!!!Meanwhile in Sylvania, beautiful Queen Louise (Jeanette MacDonald) is awakened from her sleep - "Why am I always awakened from my dreams?" - sweet lady-in-waiting (Virginia Bruce) asks "What did my lady dream?" That is Jeanette's cue to sing the beautiful "Dream Lover". The song takes her from her opulent bed to her bath!!! The most pressing concern for the country is the Queen's matrimonial state - she, for one, is sick of it!!! The Castle Band is forever playing the Wedding March!! The problem is the groom would only be a Prince Consort and not a King - and no red blooded male wants to take it on!!Alfred goes back to his home in Sylvania and when Louise meets him she is not impressed - until she reads the accounts of all his scandalous affairs - together they sing "Anything to Please the Queen". At dinner that night Alfred sings of his "Love Parade" of women, but that she has the charms of them all, rolled into one - "the eyes of Dauphine, smile of Josephine"!! The next scene is the marriage and Louise is absolutely gorgeous in one of the longest trains ever, but the ceremony is causing Alfred second thoughts - he wants his manhood back!!! Marriage proves tough for Alfred - Louise has her engagements during the day, she arranges tennis and bridge for Alfred, plus an afternoon nap "to keep up his strength"!! His valet is finding life more harmonious with Lulu (lively Lillian Roth) - they do a comic song and dance to "Let's Be Common" - one of the highlights of this wonderful movie. Alfred is so frustrated - he even sings a song about it - "Nobody's Using Now". In his spare time he has drawn up a budget to help the troubled country stay solvent but because he is only a Prince Consort his plans are not considered. When he is told that Sylvania is going ahead with a loan but it all depends on his behaviour during a night at the ballet - he takes a stand!! He walks into the performance late and amid cheers and claps manages to upstage Louise. Now the roles are reversed and Louise has a humiliating night as Alfred at last gets his manhood back!!This is a dazzling film from the first scene of Lupino Lane deftly swishing a tablecloth out from under a set table as he sings "Champagne". The songs could almost tell the story on their own, each song was essential to the plot - unlike the Operetta tradition of the time which had characters bursting into song for no reason. There was also fluid camera movement ie when Victor Milmer sweeps his camera over the elaborate wedding and ballet sequences. Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth make a riotous "common" couple and compliment the more regal pair. Among the "Lubitsch touches" - an American tour group are driven through the beautiful Sylvania and are clearly not interested - however when they hear that the income is over $100,000,000 a year - they are all agog!! Silent comedian Ben Turpin also makes a cameo appearance as a crosseyed messenger - supposedly unlucky for Alfred!!!Highly, Highly Recommended.

Terrell-4 "Even if the Queen liked him, would he be eligible to become the Queen's consort?" asks a courtier."Absolutely!" says the prime minister. "His great-grandfather was the illegitimate son of one king and his grandmother the sweetheart of another.""I had no idea he came from such a distinguished family," says the minister of war.And before long Count Alfred Renard (Maurice Chevalier), the former Sylvanian military attaché at the embassy in Paris, is being married to Louise (Jeannette MacDonald), Queen of Sylvania. We're halfway through the first musical Ernst Lubitsch made in Hollywood, and a delight it is. It's Ruritanian operetta, or rather Sylvanian operetta, but it shows what Lubitsch was doing to bring an early Hollywood cliché -- musicals filmed with cameras pointed straight at the stage-bound musical numbers -- into what the musicals, influenced by Lubitsch, became. The effervescent and amusing songs, with music by Victor Schertzinger and lyrics by Clifford Grey, for the most part come from the plot. The camera moves fluidly. The actors don't play to the camera except when Lubitsch deliberately has them do so.Most importantly, the movie is a delight. For a generation or two who uneasily know of Maurice Chevalier only as an old man telling us how much he loves little girls, Chevalier in his prime shows us why he became such an international star. The man is sexy, charming, worldly and likable. He has a self-deprecating sense of humor. His Alfred Renard is a womanizer of the old school… he doesn't love them and leave them, he loves them and leaves them smiling, as satisfied as he is. Jeannette MacDonald is a revelation for those most familiar with her trilling a song in duet with the wooden Nelson Eddy. She's quite good as a light comedienne and manages to keep Chevalier from overshadowing her.The story? Renard is recalled from Paris because of his scandalous doings with wives, maids and duchesses. He returns to Sylvania, where the Queen is prepared not to be amused. But Queen Louise also dreams of having a husband who loves her as a woman, not a Queen. She is beautiful, a bit imperious, and agrees that any husband of hers will not become the king, only a prince consort. And after the two marry, a case it appears of true love, will the Queen be smart enough to distinguish between the role of a prince consort and the role of her husband. And will Alfred be able to teach Louise a thing or two about being a wife as well as a Queen. Well, remember this is an operetta and anything but a happy ending would be awful. In fact, Lubitsch gives us an ending that is a deliberate reverse of the first wooing scene between the Count and the Queen. It is so unexpected, so clever and so affectionate, the only thing you can do is smile in appreciation. Along for the story is Alfred's man's man played by Lupino Lane and a maid of the Queen played by Lillian Roth. They have a couple of comic numbers and are first rate, especially Lane. He was a great comic star in England who built into his acts physical business that might make the Nicholas Brothers envious. (And he also was Ida Lupino's uncle.)The Love Parade is pre-Code. That's another way of saying that, as a Lubitsch film, it's naughty and sophisticated. With the Count and the Queen, sex is as much a part of love as a kiss. You might have one without the other, but it wouldn't be half as much fun.

theowinthrop 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.

Ron Oliver Domestic difficulties between the strong-willed Queen of Sylvania and her stubborn Consort may cause them both to miss THE LOVE PARADE.Director Ernst Lubitsch spread his special brand of sophisticated naughtiness in this visually impressive & engaging early talkie musical. Depending much on the intelligence of the viewer, the film serves up unexpected bons mons of wit (e.g. the dog barking his farewells to the pooches of Paris) which never fail to enchant. Lubitsch would contribute a series of delightful little comedies over the next several years, making the title of this confection pertinent in more ways than one.Maurice Chevalier practically oozes Gaelic charm in a wonderfully hammy, ingratiating performance. His French charisma dominates the screen; he embraces his songs rather than just singing them. His immense joie de vivre & exceptional talent was perfectly attuned to the sound motion picture. In her film debut, the lovely Jeanette MacDonald proves a charming partner to Chevalier. Imperious or coquettish by turns, she beguiles the viewer as well as Maurice--her celebrated voice (when intelligible) put to good use in the seduction.British physical comedian Lupino Lane is a winner as Chevalier's highly energetic little valet; lanky Lillian Roth, as a palace maid, joins him for some humorous knockabout songs. Lionel Belmore & Eugene Palette bring appropriately hefty gravitas to their roles as government ministers. Diminutive Edgar Norton appears as an unflappable majordomo.Movie mavens will recognize silent screen comic Ben Turpin as a cross-eyed lackey, Russ Powell as the Afghan Ambassador and young Jean Harlow as one of a group of women applauding Chevalier at the theatre, all uncredited.