The Love Parade (1929)

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards:

Best Picture

Paramount Famous Lasky

Best Directing

Ernst Lubitsch

Best Actor

Maurice Chevalier

Best Cinematography

Victor Milner

Best Art Direction

Hans Dreier

Best Sound Recording

Franklin Hansen

It won 0 Oscars out of a total of 6 nominations in 1929-30.


The Love Parade is a musical-comedy set in the fictional country of Sylvania where her majesty, Queen Louise, is under significant pressure to marry a suitor.  But after Count Alfred Renard is caught having affairs with women in Paris, he is ordered to stop his philandering and is punished by Queen Louise, who forces him to remain in her palace and do "anything to please the Queen."  The marriage of these circumstances becomes inevitable.

The film is an adaptation of the play, "The Prince Consort," by Leon Xanrof and Jules Chancel.  It was Ernst Lubitsch's first sound film and is often cited as being the first movie musical to utilize its song score as a storytelling device.

Released just three weeks after the events of Black Tuesday, the financial success of this film helped rescue Paramount Famous Lasky studios from the infamous Wall Street Crash of 1929.


Editorial:

If one has yet to be introduced to the Ernst Lubitsch filmography, this is probably the most accessible of his efforts.  It is a little rough around the edges, given that it is such an early talkie, but it packs the star-power of the charming Maurice Chevalier and the ever-dazzling Jeanette MacDonald as they share in a remarkable chemistry together.

Bonus points for its strange connection to Wonder Boys (2000)!

Score  |  05/10  |  This motion picture may be worth watching.