Classic Film Class: Love Me Tonight

Name: Classic Film Class: Love Me Tonight
Start: 2026-03-25T18:30:00-05:00
Location: 1045 E Fairview Ave, Montgomery, AL, United States, Alabama 36106

Schedule

Wed, 25 Mar, 2026 at 06:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

1045 E Fairview Ave, Montgomery, AL, United States, Alabama 36106 | Montgomery, AL

Introduced by film historian John Martello.

In this stylish musical comedy, Maurice Courtelin (Maurice Chevalier), a French tailor, travels to the castle of nearby royalty to collect payment on long overdue bills. A series of mishaps force Courtelin to pose as a baron while he tries to woo the elegant Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald). Resistant to Courtelin's charms at first, she eventually becomes intrigued by him. However, when the truth gets out about Courtelin's humble identity, he risks losing the only woman that he loves.

Film critic Richard Barrios calls Love Me Tonight "magical, rapturous, unique, charming, audacious, unforgettable, and, to beat a warhorse, masterpiece." He adds, "It remains less well-known than it warrants even as vastly inferior works are enshrined. . . . It is, after all, quite a provable truth: Love Me Tonight is a great film, and along with Singin' in the Rain and a very few others it resides at the very pinnacle of movie musicals, and at the apex of art."

Writer Hugh Fordin once said that the film’s director, Mamoulian, “is part of the lives of millions of people who have never heard of him.” Directors like Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris, Gigi, The Ziegfeld Follies, Meet Me in St Louis), Charles Walters (Lili, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Two Loves, Meet Me in St Louis), and Stanley Donen (Charade, Singin’ in the Raid, Funny Face, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) were inspired by Mamoulian’s work, particularly Love Me Tonight. They also learned from Mamoulian’s great directorial achievement with its superb score, well-constructed screenplay, top-notch acting ensemble, striking camera work, and invariably attractive and stylish art direction.

If you'd like tickets to all 8 classes for only $80, click the Classic Film Class pic on our website at www.capritheatre.org! Otherwise, tickets are $12 for member, and $15 for nonmember. And if you buy online - don't forget that members don't pay any service fees!