Starring Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Lupino Lane
Produced by Paramount Pictures
Alfred Renard is the military attache for the small nation of Sylvania stationed in Paris. It's a great gig as he gets to wine and dine and bed French women to his heart's content. Life is great until he sleeps with the wife of the ambassador. For his transgressions, Alfred is sent to his home country to face the queen's justice.
Queen Louise has problems of her own. Her advisors, foreign dignitaries and her own countrymen are pressuring the monarch to marry. Her country needs a foreign loan and a husband may be enough to show the foreign markets that Sylvania's leadership is stable.
When Alfred is brought before her, Louise reads the report of his romantic exploits and is intrigued. She invites him to dinner and a household of spying servants moves into full gossip mode when their monarch leads the young suitor into her bedroom.
Soon, there is a wedding, but Alfred is not the "king." He's the prince consort. His only duty seems to be to save his strength for when the queen is ready for him (if you know what I mean).
Alfred begins yearning for his life back in Paris. Can the queen begin to trust her husband with affairs of state? Or will he escape the royal bedroom and jeopardize Sylvania's finances?
The Love Parade is billed as the first movie musical ever. Previous musicals like The Jazz Singer would include songs, but they were not critical to the plot. Here, Alfred and Louise are singing about their feelings and about their frustrations. It's character exposed by song.
The Love Parade is also supremely silly, moving its characters through a plot that makes no sense. If the foreign ambassador thinks Louise isn't happily married, he'll renege on the loan? A count who embarrassed queen and country is punished with a dinner date? Nonsensical.
Oddly though, it all sort of works in this light romantic romp. Helping things considerably are the two leads whose chemistry and mischievousness leap off the screen. Maurice Chevalier is particularly good as Alfred, milking the humor from every scene with a knowing smirk and a wink to the audience.
The songs are effective, but not terribly memorable. Alfred and Louise's duet "My Love Parade," describing how the queen has all the best parts of the consort's previous conquests, has the best chance of getting stuck in your head. The funniest song hands down is "Nobody's Using It Now," a lament from Alfred that he is not appreciated by his wife. It is slyly bawdy and Chevalier knows just handle the material.
The Love Parade's opening moments left me frustrated, but the charm of the leads won me over. The film was a pleasant surprise that fans of movie musicals should give a shot.
**** out of *****
0 comments:
Post a Comment