The Love Parade

An early musical (Ernst Lubitsch's first talkie), so the sound can be hard on the ears (especially Jeanette MacDonald's high notes). The plot as such is forgettable, but see it for the performances.

It seems odd to match Jeanette MacDonald's operetta singing with Maurice Chevalier's cabaret, but each gets their own numbers and they join in the middle for duets.

Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth do two wonderful vaudeville style song and dance numbers.

The Love Parade which was Maurice Chevalier's second feature film is as fresh today as it was in 1929 when it garnered a whole flock of Academy Award nominations. It was Paramount's prestige film of the year, in fact I'm not sure if any other Paramount features got any nominations for anything that year.

It was Ernst Lubitsch's first sound feature film and apparently the man with the famed Lubitsch touch hit the ground running in the new medium with a bunch of players who were also fresh to cinema because of the coming of sound. This was Jeanette MacDonald's film debut and while she's not billed over the title as Chevalier was, her part is every bit as important and as big as his.

Maurice Chevalier has been cutting a wide swath among the ladies of Paris where he's attached to the embassy of Sylvania. So much so that he's been recalled to Sylvania for a reprimand or so he thinks.

Jeanette MacDonald is the new young Queen of Sylvania and she's got to marry for reasons of state. As did many a female monarch, British ones like Victoria, Anne, and the two Marys all took husbands for reasons of state and the method they chose them was as much political as anything else. Only Elizabeth I managed to escape the marriage obligation.

While her diplomats look askance on Chevalier's romantic antics, Jeanette sees in him one grand candidate for marriage. If she's got to get married for reasons of state by God she's going to pick a husband who's going to be ready to romp at a royal command.

The Love Parade's musical score was written by Victor Schertzinger and Clifford Grey. The first notes Jeanette MacDonald ever sang on screen were from her hit song, Dream Lover. It's not the same song as Bobby Darin had a hit in the Fifties from. Film fans will recognize it as the flying theme that Cecil B. DeMille used as background music when Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde were on the trapeze in The Greatest Show On Earth. Jeanette also sings March of the Grenadiers as she reviews her palace guard.

Chevalier's two big numbers were Paris Stays The Same and My Love Parade from whence the title comes. Both were written to suit his grand boulevardier style. Some comic numbers were written for Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth who are the second leads. Lupino is Chevalier's orderly and Roth is one of her maids. They make a cute pair with their impish behavior, aping their masters.

The Love Parade got six Oscar nominations, but did not win in any category and the categories were a lot fewer back in the day. It was up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Maurice Chevalier, Best Sound Recording, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography. It also has a lot fewer overacted performances that were the norm in those early sound days. It was as if Ernst Lubitsch instinctively knew what to do with sound in film.

The story is about a Prince Consort and usually the model that is held up is that of Prince Albert for Queen Victoria. But that's not the road Chevalier wants to take.

It's a continental story and yet Lubitsch as he always did, made those stories appealing to American audiences. After 80 years, The Love Parade is still appealing.

Count Alfred (Maurice Chevalier) has disgraced his home country of Sylvania with one too many scandalous affairs with married women, and the ambassador of Sylvania commands him to return home. Alfred's manservant, Jacques (Lupino Lane), begs to come along, and his master relents. Alfred, burdened with a newly acquired French accent that makes him sound most un-Sylvanian, fears the wrath of his queen (Jeanette MacDonald). But instead of having him shot, she falls in love with him, and he with her. The entire kingdom, which has had nothing on its mind except seeing the queen get married, is thrilled. As Jacques and Lulu the maid (Lillian Roth) conduct their own romance, reveling in their commonness, Alfred discovers at the altar that his own marriage will be most uncommon - and a dire threat to his manhood. He may be marrying a queen, but he most definitely won't be a king.

Ernst Lubitsch directed this marvelous technical and artistic achievement back when other early sound films were still stumbling along. Four outstanding performances from four witty and charming performers (Chevalier, MacDonald, Lane and Roth) grace this lavishly produced musical comedy with its champagne-bubble songs and sexually-charged dialogue.

"Anything for the Queen" will be my new motto around the household, specifically for my bf. It is good to see that you can learn something from 82+ years ago for the first time.

I've always been a fan of 30's musicals so it was a treat to see this movie for the first time of my life as a historical piece, but also to see the development of musical movies from the start. I am blessed to live within 30 miles of the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, CA that offers amazing film histories, museum and revivals every week of the year.

I can now see why Chevalier was such a hit -- he had natural wit, humor and timing, something I never witnessed in later films (such as Gigi) where his talents were mostly condensed down to singing.

Jeanette McDonald's operatic singing was extraordinary, but does feel "dated" in the film in contrast to the impeccable performances, timing, dance and humor-filled vaudevillian routines of Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth. IMO they stole the show (sort of like a 'Jack & Karen' team did from "Will & Grace").

I would see the movie again just to check out the servant scenes and a well-deserved nod to the animal trainer for the dog performances. The entire cinema was laughing at the opening goodbye to Paris scene.

As covered in previous comments The Love Parade is important historically, with it being Jeanette MacDonald's debut, Maurice Chevalier's second film, director Ernst Lubitsch's first sound picture and Chevalier and MacDonald's first pairing together. But The Love Parade still does manage as well to be, apart from some primitive sound quality, a great film and compares favourable within Lubitsch's mostly consistent(in a good way) filmography.

The costumes and sets in The Love Parade are wonderfully opulent and the photography is very stylishly done. Lubitsch's distinctive style is evident all through the film, bringing a huge amount of class, subtlety and elegance. What he also did brilliantly was making camera and sound effects more flexible counterpointing the music numbers, and also even for his first sound picture having a technical mastery already with apparently having two sets built for one number shot simultaneously with the orchestra off screen between the two sets, going back and forth in the editing, something that had never been done before. The songs are very pleasant and memorable at least, with the beautiful and catchy duet My Love Parade, the charmingly intimate Dream Lover and the hugely entertaining Let's Be Common faring the best. The choreography's elegant and poised and in other places witty and inventive, the highlight number in this regard being Let's Be Common.

The script was one of my favourite things about The Love Parade, it was very sophisticated and deliciously witty, particularly funny was the writing regarding the Count's political uselessness. There's even some sexual innuendo that was very ahead of its time back in 1929. The story is full of immense charm and sophisticated style with a seductive edge, not ever making the mistake of being dull or improbable(and if it did really it would not be as glaring as the story in Monte Carlo). The characters are very likable and the performances from all four leads do not disappoint at all. Noteworthy especially were MacDonald whose screen debut was a revelation being both sexy and regal and singing like an angel and Lupino Lane whose incredible physical comedy is enough to make one seethe with envy. Sassy Lillian Roth sparkles as Lane's partner and Chevalier is the epitome of Gallic warmth and charm. The chemistry between him and MacDonald beguiles and for two relatively different singing styles they blend remarkably well when singing together.

Overall, a great film. While I may prefer The Merry Widow, Heaven Can Wait, The Shop Around the Corner and especially Trouble in Paradise over The Love Parade it is unsurprising that The Love Parade was a huge hit at the time and still wins over people now. 9/10 Bethany Cox