Maurice Chevalier Movies

In this drama, a junkman, Maurice Chevalier in his American film debut, rescues a drowning boy from the Seine. The boy's mother had been attempting to kill herself and her son as well. The junkman cannot save the mother. He takes the boy to his grandfather. There he encounters the boy's aunt with whom he falls in love. The junkman is spotted while singing in the Flea Market and is hired to sing in a music hall. One of the owners is afraid that the junkman will fall for one of the chorines and begs him to leave, but the junkman is hooked and will not leave. Songs include: "Yes, We have No Bananas", "Les Ananas", "Dites-Moi, Ma Mere", "Louise", "Wait Till You See My Cherie", "It's A Habit of Mine", and "On Top of the World Alone" and "Valentine". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Le Grande Mare is the French-language version of Paramount's The Big Pond (1930), with Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert in their original roles as Pierre Mirande and Barbara Billings. Pierre is a Venetian tour guide, who falls in love with wealthy American tourist Barbara. Her male relatives think that Pierre is merely a fortune-hunter, but Barbara's mom persuades her husband to give Pierre a job in his chewing-gum factory. The menfolk finally approve of Barbara's choice when Pierre comes up with the brilliant, money-making idea of coating the gum with liquor! Both La Grande Mare and The Big Pond were filmed simultaneously at Paramount's Long Island studios, but if the stars were tired out by this procedure, one would never know it from their enthusiastic performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maurice Chevalier plays a 19th century Viennese lieutenant, conducting an affair with sexy violinist Claudette Colbert. While publicly flirting with Colbert, Chevalier is spotted by a dowdy princess (Miriam Hopkins), who thinks that the lieutenant's wink was meant for her. Forced to marry the Princess, Chevalier despairs at her lack of charm. But good-hearted Colbert takes the princess aside, dolls her up, and instructs her how to bewitch--and keep--her man. Chevalier is enchanted by the "new" princess, while Colbert, who will have no trouble finding someone else to keep her warm and comfortable, cheerfully sashays out of his life. Long thought lost, The Smiling Lieutenant was rediscovered in an East European vault in the 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Une Heure Pres de Toi is the French-language version of Ernst Lubitsch's One Hour With You. A remake of Lubitsch's silent comedy The Marriage Circle, the film asks the musical question, "Can a handsome young doctor with a bevy of beautiful female patients remain faithful to his lovely wife?" It certainly isn't easy, especially when Dr. Bertier (Maurice Chevalier) nearly succumbs to the charms of sexy Mme. Olivier (Lily Damita). Even so, at film's end he's back in the arms of his loving bride Colette (Jeanette MacDonald). According to contemporary reviews, the delightful rhythmic dialogue so vital to the success of One Hour With You made a successful transition from English to French. The box-office value of Une Heure Pres de Toi was increased immensely by the fact that the original stars, Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, repeated their roles in the French version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most technically accomplished and sophisticated movie musicals of the 1930's, Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight (1932) had a profound effect on the shape of the musical genre (especially the films of Vincente Minnelli), and remains a candidate for best movie musical ever made, some seven decades after its release. And that distinction is based entirely on its style and structure -- it doesn't even take into account a hit-laden score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, or a raft of delightful performances, several of them totally unexpected in their range and wit. The movie opens with an amazing double audio/visual montage sequence, in which the sleeping city of Paris awakens to a slowly rising chorus of sounds, street by street, house by house -- forming what the script describes as a "symphony" of sound -- which coalesces into a song. It is through the latter that we meet Maurice Courtelin (Maurice Chevalier), a young Parisian tailor who has just completed his first big job, an order of 15 suits for the Viscount de Varese (Charlie Ruggles), who has promised to pay him on delivery. He then discovers that the Viscount is little more than an upper-class ne'er-do-well who, among his other faults, has no money of his own -- being completely dependent on his crusty old uncle the Duke (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) -- and never pays his bills. In one of a half-dozen remarkable musical scenes, as Maurice's friend Emile (Bert Roach) ponders the matter of love in the new suit he has made for him, Maurice begins singing "Isn't It Romantic?", causing Emile to hum the tune as he strolls onto the street; the song is picked up by a taxi driver (Rolfe Sedan), and passed to his passenger (Tyler Brooke), a composer, who carries it aboard a train, humming it, where a group of soldiers hear it and end up singing it as they march across a field, where a young gypsy hears it and carries it to his camp on his violin, where the whole clan is soon singing. And the song is finally wafted across the surrounding fields to the estate of the Duke and the Viscount de Varese, where it is heard and sung by the Duke' niece, Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald). The two characters, Maurice and Jeanette, are linked for us in this way even before they meet, and the stage is set for the rest of the plot. For the Princess, living under her family's tradition-bound hand, romance is a source of unhappiness; there's no one at the chateau to interest her, and even if there were, she couldn't dare to be interested; already a widow from an arranged marriage at age 22 (her first husband was 75), she must marry someone of equal royal rank, and the only two known candidates in all of Europe are ages 85 and 12, respectively. Maurice journeys to the chateau with the clothes the Viscount ordered, hoping to confront him for payment, and is mistaken for one of the guests -- and he crosses paths with the Princess, and falls in love with her. Identified as the Count de Courtelin, he delights the rest of the guests with his joie de vivre and his way with a song, especially "Mimi" (which somehow managed to make it past the censors, despite some amazingly risque lyrics), getting the entire coterie of nobles singing it in his wake. But the Princess is resistant to his free and easy charm and flirtations, her staid upbringing and sense of station fighting her natural inclinations, while her other would-be suitor, the Count de Savignac (Charles Butterworth), is suspicious of this new-found rival. Also present at the estate is the Duke's other niece, Countess Valentine (Myrna Loy), who has a nymphomaniac interest in men under the age of 40, of whom Maurice is the only one at the chateau not related to her -- thus, he must fend off her advances while trying to woo a woman who wants nothing to do with him. Rumor soon spreads that Maurice is, in fact, a full-blooded royal prince traveling in disguise. And if he is a prince of the rank they think he is, then suddenly the Princess's marital and romantic prospects seem a lot more encouraging, especially as she begins to melt to his charm. Maurice wants to tell her the truth, but will she feel the same way about him, knowing that he is a commoner, a tradesman ... a tailor? Director Rouben Mamoulian had already jump-started the musical genre with the backstage drama Applause (1929), to great critical and financial success. In contrast to that movie's deceptively naturalistic approach to its subject, Love Me Tonight was highly stylized -- Applause had no actual musical numbers in complete form, while Love Me Tonight was filled with incredibly elaborate and subtle musical set-pieces that grow naturally out of the plot (adapted from a play by Paul Armont and Leopold Marchand) and advanced the narrative. Some of the scenes here helped set the stage for works such as An American In Paris and Gigi (one scene near the end, when Maurice's identity is revealed, seems to have been the model for "The Gossips At Maxim's" from the latter film) and Funny Face. Such is Love Me Tonight's reputation, that in the summer of 2007, 75 years after its release and more than five years after it showed up on DVD, the movie chalked up sell-out audiences when it opened the Mamoulian retrospective at New York's Film Forum. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this romantic musical, a carnival knife thrower's assistant falls for a Parisian tour guide who earns money wearing a sandwich board that says "Is Your Heart Happy? No? Consult Professor Bibi, 17 Rue Canton." After a few romantic mishaps, true love eventually ensues. Songs include: "Lover of Paree," "Lucky Guy," "In a One-Room Flat," "The Way to Love," "It's Oh, It's Ah, It's Wonderful" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1934 musical comedy The Merry Widow, based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar. In 1885, King Achmed (George Barbier) strives to protect the financial interests of his small, poor kingdom of Marshovia in Central Europe. When the kingdom's wealthiest widow, Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald), goes off to Paris, the king sends the village's greatest lover, Prince Danilo (Maurice Chevalier), off to marry her. The king demands that Danilo must romance and marry Sonia so she will return to the small kingdom with her riches. If he doesn't succeed, he'll be arrested. While in Paris, Danilo is distracted from his royal task when he finds himself in the company of many lovely Parisian women. Unbeknownst to him, one of the ladies is really Sonia pretending to be an escort girl. After a dance number and some songs, the Ambassador (Edward Everett Horton) announces that they are to be married. When Sonia refuses to marry Danilo, he is arrested and sent back to the small kingdom. Eventually Sonia returns to Marshovia, where she visits him in jail. She testifies on his behalf and they are finally married. The Merry Widow was filmed several other times, including the 1925 silent version directed by Erich Von Stroheim and the1952 version starring Fernando Lamas as Danilo. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This French-language version of the 1935 Hollywood musical Folies Bergere retains the original star (Maurice Chevalier) and director (Roy Del Ruth) and Busby Berkeley's big-scale production numbers. It also follows substantially the same plot: A nightclub entertainer (Chevalier), is hired to pose as his look-alike (also Chevalier), a prominent aviation tycoon. The masquerade causes consternation for the entertainer's girlfriend, who of course has no idea what's going on, and for the tycoon's wife, who can't understand why her cold-fish husband has suddenly become so warm and demonstrative. Beyond the obvious language change, the major differences between the two Folies Bergeres are found in their supporting casts: for example, Natalie Paley plays the tycoon's spouse role originally essayed by Merle Oberon, while Sim Viva, as the girlfriend, fills the dancing shoes of the English-language version's Ann Sothern. Folies Bergere served as the basis for two future 20th Century-Fox musicals, That Night in Rio and On the Riviera, neither of which were released in French versions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide