One Heavenly Night

This movie has a very low rating on here. Unfortunately, I think 4.9, while bad, is still too high. This is really a bomb.

Not because of the leads. Boles and Lynne were both very attractive, sang well, and probably could have acted decently if they had been given anything even vaguely resembling a good script.

But this script is awful, really awful. The characters are dislikable, the dialog is bad, etc.

And there is NO good music in this movie, despite the fact that there are a lot of musical numbers. It ends, inevitably, with the lovers in each others' arms, but we don't even get a final duet.

In short: skip this. There just isn't anything here worth watching.

Evelyn Laye and John Boles are absolutely charming. The musical sections are quite beautiful my only complaint is that there isn't enough music. Much of the music seems to have been tragically cut out of the film before release due to the public's untimely distaste for musical at the time of the release of this film. By the time musicals became popular again, operettas of this classy type had unfortunately gone out of fashion. Rare chance to see one of the last of the first wave of musicals (1929-1931) from Hollywood (and in my opinion, it's best and most tasteful period). By the time the second wave came in 1932, musical films too a decidedly more low-brow approach with more emphasis being given to low comedy as opposed to classy tasteful music.

... but the rest of the film and the music? Not so much. Ultimately the entirety is less than the sum of its parts. This was one of those operattas that made musicals go out of fashion in 1930-1931 for a couple of years and put Samuel Goldwyn off of making musicals for decades, other than his always successful Eddie Cantor musicals of that early sound era.

A cabaret singer, Fritzi (Lilyan Tashman), is run out of town because of all of the wildness she causes. She is supposed to be exiled as a "guest" of the magistrate, but instead convinces flower girl Lilli to take her place, since nobody where she is going knows what she looks like. Meanwhile, the magistrate (John Boles as Count Mirko Tibor) is licking his chops at having sexually frisky Fritzi in his house for an extended period. Now Lilli just wants an opportunity to be what she is not - Fritzi. How will she react when the count starts chasing her around the furniture expecting her not to run? Watch and find out.

The casting here did work, John Boles was a great voice and a great presence in these early sound musicals. Lilyan Tashman was the older classier version of Jean Harlow, if you can compare her to anybody. She always has a grin on her face like she knows a secret nobody else suspects, and she is just perfect for this part where she never loses her poise and is always ready with a wise crack. Evelyn Laye was a great singer and plays her part as the virgin trying to play a vamp quite well. Leon Errol plays Lilli's uncle and the comic relief. The situation and the characters sound great on paper, but ultimately it is just boring. There are extended scenes that go nowhere, and somehow they are trying to use Leon Errol to pad the plot with scenes that look like stuff that would be better suited to the Three Stooges - any of them - than Errol.

Watch it for the great number where Laye and Boles sing the title song which is truly beautiful, for the humorous scene where the two sing to each other in a pounding rainstorm, and for what passed for law and order in Eastern Europe at the time...Why is it Fritzi's problem that a riot broke out among a bunch of men over her charms? Why are they not in jail? If Fritzi was under arrest, how did she wind up legitimately sentenced without some kind of chain of custody where one person can't easily replace another? You can ponder these questions but, alas, no answers are ever given.

I was just two years old when this was made - an early talker (me, not the film!!). Tonight, I was in a mood for lighthearted escapism, and this suited my mood down to the ground. A truly charming bit of fairy tale froth. An operetta by any other name. Not one little hint of nastiness or sordidness.

Oh my, why to they not make films like this now

The problem with One Heavenly Night is that it tries too hard to be a little of everything, and can't make up its mind what it wants to be. We have the coy, demure Evelyn Laye as Lilli and the tall, dark, and dashing Count Tibor (John Boles) chasing each other around in a mansion, and out in the rain (although Lilli's hair and dress don't seem to get very wet after running through the pouring rain...) Lilli pretends to be Fritzi, a famous entertainer. Then, for a time, its also a comedy with Leon Errol as Otto, who gets drunk and silly with the Count's house manager, as they discuss the wine room and drinkies. These routines scattered about really slow the movie down. Then Lilli and the Count do a GREAT job singing to each other, in Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy operatic style. This 1931 Goldwyn production is made just before the Hays movie code came riding in, and TCM showed it at midnight, just in case. There are some suggestive songs, but no blatantly improper scenes which were so common in movies made at this time. Surprisingly good quality sound and photography. The plot is a little hit or miss, but not a bad way to spend 80 minutes. No surprises in this one...