One Hour with You (1932)

This classic comedy by acclaimed director Ernst Lubitsch (author of such films as "To Be or Not to Be" or "Ninotchka") displays brilliant humour, catching songs and incredibly modern points of view without ever leaving the vintage atmosphere of the time it was filmed.The issue of unfaithfulness is addressed in a way one would not suppose in a 1930's feature. Far from giving the viewer moral lessons, the movie leaves several doors open and even asks the public what would they do in a case like the one presented. The breaking of the fourth wall in doing so is another modern aspect that will take modern viewers by surprise (a very nice surprise, by the bye).No morals, no precepts, a lot of irony and sensibility; all disguised in evening dresses, bow ties, Art Deco, classic cars and that fantastic vaudeville style. Don't judge it by its age or fashion: many present films are not as modern as this is.

Jeanette Macdonald is perhaps best known these days for her series of films with Nelson Eddy in the late 1930s/early 1940s, but this is a good example of her previous teaming with that naughty French export Maurice Chevalier.'One Hour With You' features several great songs plus a fluffy plot around a married couple and misunderstood flirtations - helped a lot by other cast members Genevieve Tobin, Roland Young, and Charles Ruggles. Chevalier's charming persona is served well here in asides to the camera and a couple of great solo numbers, while Macdonald is sparky, beguiling, and a real tease.

A Jeannette McDonald/Maurice Chevalier musical farce, in which a happily married couple have a close encounter with inconstancy—Dr. André Bertier (Chevalier) with his wife's vivacious best friend Mitzi (Genevieve Tobin), and his wife Collette (McDonald)—almost—with his earnest but dull best man Adolphe (Charles Ruggles). It supposedly takes place in Paris, but who can tell? Like most sex farces this one has a set of misunderstandings and complications that get resolved. Mitzi gets divorced and disappears to Lausanne,.delighting her husband (Roland Young), who wants to be with the attractive maid (Barbara Leonard). It almost looks like the Bertiers will be divorcing, but suddenly they forgive each other. McDonald is a passable comedienne, but Chevalier is great, tall, dark-haired, dapper, with a huge grin that suggests he knows he's been bad but he enjoys it so much! There are a few songs, but not too many. Because some components of the screenplay—the cross-purposes with place cards at dinner and the whole tangle of laughing infidels—closely resembles parts of Pas sur la Bouche, it seems clear that they both came out of the 1920s farce the makers of the latter film credit for their original story.

In the second of the four Chevalier - MacDonald films the leads are a married couple (Chevalier is a upper class doctor, of all things) who are happy together. In fact they are first seen preparing for their anniversary party. Both have friends who can spoil this. Chevalier's closest friend is Charlie Ruggles, who secretly loves MacDonald (but who is usually too nervous or intense to get anywhere with her - if she were interested). MacDonald is close to an old school friend, Genevieve Tobin, who is a continuous flirt (one can even consider her a nymphomaniac). She is married to Roland Young, but their marriage is on the rocks because of her affairs (his too - he wants to marry their maid). So MacDonald invites her friend into her home, and Tobin soon is being coquettish towards Chevalier. When she returns home, she asks him to see her on a professional (i.e. medical) problem, and proceeds to try to seduce him. This upsets Chevalier, who tries to remain faithful to MacDonald, but she (blind as she is to what Tobin is doing) insists he help her friend. Young is delighted. He is closing in on a divorce with Tobin. Finally, being weak, Chevalier gives in. MacDonald learns of this, and turns to Ruggles (!). And the film is set for some kind of resolution of these problems in sexual politics.The music is best recalled for the title tune, "One Hour With You". It would pop up for years in Paramount film musicals (in DUCK SOUP, it is played in the sequence when Harpo Marx is doing a "Paul Revere" ride to rally the countryside, only to stop at his girlfriend's for "one hour with her."). It also appeared as the national love song of Klopstokia in MILLION DOLLAR LEGS, with Jack Oakie singing the words, "Woof bootle gik..." instead of the original words to it. However, the number that gets me is the one mentioned in the "Summary" line, which Chevalier sings to explain to the audience his dilemma regarding his loyalties to his wife versus the fascination of the beguiling Tobin. In all of his films in the 1930s he would sing some tune that dealt with the heroine or another woman: "Mimi" in LOVE ME TONIGHT is an example, as is "Louise". "MITZI" is another example of this.The Lubitsch touch is shown throughout. One of the best moments is when Ruggles is talking to MacDonald about attending a party at their home, and learns it is a dinner party, not the costume party he is dressed for. He turns to his butler, and demands to know why he told Ruggles it was a costume party. "Oh sir," says the giggling butler, "I so wanted to see you in tights!" With bits like that sprinkled about, this film is a small treasure.