Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

Boring biopic about the relationship between singer Ruth Etting (Doris Day) and gangster Moe Snyder (James Cagney). The film takes liberties with the facts, of course, as biopics are wont to do. Obviously studios were not going to let the images of their stars be sullied too much. But I'm surprised they went as far as they did, with Cagney's role in particular.I'm not a Doris Day fan. I've tried and tried but I just find her such a boring and vanilla on-screen personality. Her singing is fine, if a little bland for my tastes. Nothing about her performance in this film changes my opinion of her. So, if you're a big Day fan, maybe you'll like this a lot more than me. Cagney's the most interesting thing about it all. Too bad he didn't get to do any hoofing in this one. Cameron Mitchell plays the "other man," based on Etting's real-life second husband. That poor guy really got the shaft in the life-to-screen adaptation.Anyway, I didn't love this picture. Part of that is my general disinterest for Doris Day films but a larger part is that this movie is just not very exciting. I was bored enough while watching I found myself looking up the real people and events it was based on. Needless to say the real story sounded like a much darker and more interesting movie.

. . . says Marty "The Gimp" (James Cagney) early in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME. This story takes place before AMER!CAN IDOL brought a measure of meritocracy to the U.S. music scene. Back in the 1900s, commercial success depended upon the Manager, the Mafia, and Payola bribes. Good managers, like Elvis' Col. Parker, flew their meal tickets around on safe planes; bad managers put singers such as Buddy Holly on planes that crashed. In LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, the MGM studio courageously exposes the underbelly of American "success." Among the DVD extras are two films foisted off on the public back in the day by the gangsters behind the subject of this expose\Biopic, "singer" Ruth Etting. It's clear that she had little if any talent in her own right, and would have been kicked out of many church choirs. (Having Doris Day portray Ruth is like starring Eninem in THE LIFE OF TINY TIM, or having the Boston Pops present themselves as the River City School Orchestra.) Ruth operates here on the "If you give a mouse a cookie . . . " Principle. Use payola to allow her to assault the radio waves, and she wants to be on Broadway. Put her there, and she starts humming "California, here I come." Ruth and Marty's relationship is like a too-long episode of THE BICKERSONS. Having Doris Day playing gold-digger Ruth kind of obscures the crux of this sordid tale, which is the Real Life Ruth's total lack of entertainment ability and scruples. Sadly, Roseanne (Barr) was not old enough to play Ruth when this cautionary tale was in the works. She would fit this tawdry part perfectly.

So much has been written about this film on this site that it seems a bit superfluous at this point to add more. But I just watched it again after many years and was once more impressed by the superior acting of both leads and the glorious soundtrack of 20s-30s songs. Although some of the biographical aspects of Ruth Etting's life and career appear to be glossed over or absent, this film, nevertheless, has so much going for it: A strong (albeit, modified) story; great acting by all; and the best soundtrack of Doris Day's career (the album was #1 on the charts for months).The scenes between Day and Cagney are electrifying and make the tension between them and the inevitable consequences of their fraught relationship totally convincing. In addition to these two superlative performers, Cameron Mitchell is a huge surprise in a major supporting part,in the kind of role one rarely saw him in. He's strong, appealing, and just right, as are Robert Keith, Harry Bellaver, and Tom Tully in the three other significant roles. Though Cagney more than holds his own, this is Doris Day's film. Her performance is confident and complex, and she has never sounded better, singing an enormous range of period tunes, many of them standards, as well as a couple written for the film. She is absolutely mesmerizing in several of the numbers, particularly "It All Depends on You," where the camera focuses on her face for virtually the entire song, performed with only piano accompaniment. See this film for Doris Day's singing, for a glimpse at the career (even if skewed) of a major but nearly forgotten star of another era (Ruth Etting),and for the dynamic pairing of Day and Cagney.

As a retired history teacher, I always look at the historical accuracy of films and often investigate this on my own before or after I see a film. According to a quote on IMDb, this film is half truth and half fiction. So what, then, is the real story? Well, after some reading, I found that I STILL don't know! I do know some of the film was embellished (for example, Ruth Etting was a headliner BEFORE she met Martin Snyder AND Martin's nickname was "The Gimp" yet his character walks just fine in the film)--but where is that line between truth and fiction and how far over did it go? I sure wish I knew.This is an odd film--a gangster musical. I like gangster films but frankly I felt there was a bit too much singing for my taste--though since the story is about a professional singer, I guess my complaint is very minor. Doris Day plays Etting and her husband is played with lots of gusto by James Cagney. The plot concerns him managing her career and its impact on their marriage. He's a bully and thug--and at first he's an asset. Later, when he alienates practically everyone, he's an obvious deficit and Day leaves him for a piano player. Cagney's reaction is bad--to put it mildly.I know this film has a very good reputation, but I found that after a while I got a bit tired of the movie. Cagney's 'big dumb jerk routine' got a bit old (how can a man YELL for an entire film?!) and Day's 'nice girl routine' seemed fake. At least to me, it was hard feeling sorry for the character, as she seemed to willingly make a deal with the devil--so to speak. Portraying her as a victim seemed disingenuous. So, rather one-dimensional and unlikable characters made this a bit hard to love. Still, the quality of the production was high--and I did enjoy it. I just didn't love it.