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Saturday, August 16, 2014

One Hour With You (1932)

In Paris, a happily married doctor (Maurice Chevalier) is faithful to his wife (Jeanette MacDonald) who he is madly in love with. But when her schoolgirl friend (Genevieve Tobin) enters the picture, his fidelity is tested. One of the treasures of early thirties musicals, Ernst Lubitsch's sly oh so French musical comedy is a pre-code film. So that means adultery is treated casually while everyone forgives each other for their dalliances, real or imagined while singing the charming Oscar Straus and Leo Robin witty ditties. For those used to the aging Chevalier of his GIGI days, it comes as quite a surprise to see how appealing he was in his early career. Similarly, MacDonald is delightful, a fluid sexy minx quite unrecognizable from the iron butterfly MGM turned her into when they paired her with Nelson Eddy. Apparently George Cukor had his finger in the finished product but it feels totally like a Lubitsch film. With Roland Young, Charles Ruggles and Josephine Dunn.

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