Maurice Chevalier, C or D?

As an actor, he was not given parts that would overtax his acting ability, which was pretty limited. 'Genial' was his best schtick and he usually stuck to that. Once or twice a movie he attempted 'charming'. As he grew old, he added 'avuncular' to his repertoire. By the end, he was adept at concious self-parody, whereas at the start he was a parody, too, but he didn't play against it.

The Love Parade was fairly sexually frank--Jeanette shows a lot of leg, and Maurice says of himself "nobody's had any complaints so far." And when Jeanette coos "You'll love me from morning 'til night," she corrects herself and sings "From night 'til morning" while Maurice scrunches up his face and smiles in that half-charming, half-disgusting manner. The scenes where Maurice asks for respect etc. ring false; it's clear there's only one thing on his mind here.

Someone compared his singing to Fred Astaire. Just based on The Love Parade, that doesn't seem too apt. Maybe his phrasing became more, er, languorous later, but here he's pure music hall. By comparison there is a lot of jazz in Astaire's approach.

The Love Parade was an unusual film. It may have been Lubitsch's first sound picture, and it was one of the first musicals. Due to the constraints of early sound technology (that is, camera could hardly be moved), many of the scenes are pretty static and there are more long shots (in the sense of distance, but duration too) than is typical of Lubitsch. In fact it seems a lot like Lubitsch in slow-mo. I even dozed off for a minute. On the other hand this does put the emphasis on the luscious art design and on the felicities of Lubitsch's staging.

OK, so I'm seeing One Hour with You soon. What are the other essential films in the Chevalier corpus? And are any of his recordings worth tracking down?

I like Love in the Afternoon, despite or perhaps because of it being the gloomiest romantic comedy ever made.

Yes, Amateurist, you are the talk of New York ILXdom!.

If this were Billboard, you'd be 18 with a bullet!

My favorite moment is at the beginning. Chevalier is about to go to the boudoir where wife Jeanette beckons; just before he reaches for the door, he turns to the camera and says, "Vive la France!"

Indeed.

Let the bidding commence.

I have no strong feelings for the man beyond disliking him in Love in the Afternoon, a movie I really can't stand.

rosemary, two proposals:

1. will you marry me?
2. can you copy that record for me? i will copy you some stuff in return.

(They were in a movie together.)

This is my favorite thread.

Mary et al did you see any of the Lubitsch movies?

I saw part of The Love Parade last night and now I can't stop singing this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKEX6syFdDk

I was almost cross-eyed at the sentimentality in Innocents of Paris (1929). EVERYONE involved in the production had to have had The Kid (1921) in the back of their mind. But do see it if you can.

Pièges (1939) will be at the National Gallery of Art on 9/2/17; is anyone else going? Should I report back?

Pièges (Siodmak, 1939): Chevalier is his signature charming horndog character for the second act. To a degree that undermines the third act--the dude is a stalker, certainly, but did I miss something suggesting he's capable of violence?

I suppose now I have to see the American remake, Lured (Sirk, 1947), if only to see if they came up with anything as batshit as the plot Siodmak gave Erich von Stroheim in act one.