I have not been shy when it comes to expressing my feelings about Ernst Lubitsch’s musical collaborations with Maurice Chevalier. The famous “Lubitsch touch” has had little effect on me as I sat through One Hour with You and The Smiling Lieutenant, both of which I gave mediocre reviews to. Maurice, under the direction of Lubitsch, is always seeming to play characters that chase skirts and value pleasure over substance. The same element is fully present in 1929’s The Love Parade, but it adds an additional element to it that seems for a bit to be headed in the right direction before ultimately kicking any progressive elements to the curb in favor of an offensive ending that undoes any goodwill the film developed leading up to it. In short, it had me interested for a time, then blew it entirely.
The film opens up in the typical Chevalier way with his character, Count Alfred Renard, getting into trouble in Paris following a string of scandals involving women. Chevalier was a French native and, working in talking films, used that accent to good effect. Here he is playing a military attaché to the Sylvanian Embassy in Paris. With the trouble he has gotten himself into, Renard has been recalled to Sylvania to answer for it to the Queen, Louise (Jeanette MacDonald).
Louise has her own problems, though. She is being pressured to marry, a prospect she has no real interest in and few prospects as whomever she marries would not be King but a prince consort. This position comes with no authority and no power, making it an undesirable position for most men. Louise has made it clear that she has no interest in being pressured any more by her subjects to find a man. But when she finally meets with Renard, she is intrigued by him. She invites him to dinner on the pretense of finding a suitable “punishment” for him.
Their relationship progresses to the point of marriage. However, the romance begins to wear thin after Renard finds himself with no authority, no station, and often nothing to do as his wife is constantly gone in pursuit of her royal duties. It doesn’t take long before he is looking to escape this misery, wishing for a divorce. In desperation, Louise comes up with a solution to their marriage woes, a solution that may have played fine in the 1920s but is unfortunate when looked at with modern eyes. This is a simple case of a film not living up to current sensibilities, and if you cannot look upon it with that in mind, you will find this movie to be very unpleasant.
The Love Parade was a popular film when it first released. So popular, in fact, it saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy at the start of the Great Depression. It was Lubitsch’s first sound film, and in some ways, that is obvious. The sound at times is not as crisp as it could be, and some of the acting, especially from Lupino Lane’s character Jacques, is highly reminiscent of silent film pantomime. But Lubitsch is also demonstrating that he can work around the handicap of the limited technology. In one scene, for instance, two characters are tasked with singing the same song alternately. To make this work, Lubitsch had two sets built, with an off-camera orchestra hiding between them, directing all three simultaneously. This allowed him to edit between the two scenes without interrupting the music, something that was previously unheard of.
These innovations aside, this is a thoroughly old-fashioned film that flirts with progressive ideas before falling back on the male-dominated ideals of the time. There are moments, especially after the wedding, where Renard is basically the stay-at-home spouse while his wife is the “breadwinner.” This was decidedly uncharacteristic for male and female societal roles at the time, especially in the movies. All of this would be fine were it not for the direction the film decides to take it. Renard chafes at being relegated to the subservient role and threatens to divorce Louise because of it. This petulant attitude, coupled with his absolute willingness to end their marriage over it, puts him in a bad light. Even worse is Louise’s willingness to give all the power of her kingdom over to him, essentially swapping their roles back to the then-present-day politics. This undermines any goodwill the film has built to this point.
This had the potential to be a descent romantic musical comedy. The songs are fun, and the comedy is often hitting the mark, especially whenever Jacques is on screen. But it falters when Renard manipulates Louise out of her position of power, and she so willingly goes along with it. It reinforces negative gender politics and makes Renard into a thoroughly unlikable character. So much of this film works that it is really a blow to have it fall so far in the final third. In this case, as in the other Lubitsch/Chevalier films I have seen, the “Lubitsch touch” just doesn’t live up to its reputation.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Ernst Lubitsch
Best Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Best Actor: Maurice Chevalier
Best Art Direction: Hans Dreier
Best Cinematography: Victor Milner
Best Sound Recording: Franklin Hansen
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Release Date: November 19, 1929
Running Time: 107 minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lillian Roth, Lupino Lane, and Eugene Pallette
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
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