Viscount Gilbert de Vareze (Charlie Ruggles) is a huge fan of Parisian tailor Maurice Courtelin (Maurice Chevalier). Not because he’s a particularly big fan of his work, but because he’s the only tailor in Paris who will let him buy suits on credit. After Gilbert buys several suits from him on credit and skips out on the bill, Maurice isn’t about to sit back and take this, so he heads out to his family’s estate to collect on the debt. Gilbert lives with his uncle Count de Savignac (Charles Butterworth), the Count’s daughter Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald) and niece Countess Valentine (Myrna Loy). On his way to the estate, Maurice runs into Jeanette on his way to the estate. It’s love at first sight for him, but Jeanette isn’t as easily won over.
When Maurice arrives at the estate, he refuses to leave until Gilbert pays his bill. Unable to pay, Gilbert goes ahead and invites Maurice to stay for a few days until he can get the money. He tells his family that Maurice is really a Baron and even though Maurice thinks this scheme is ridiculous, he decides to go along with it when he realizes that Jeanette lives there. Some of the family questions his background, but ultimately, he wins them over. They even throw a costume ball in his honor. Valentine in particular has taken a shine to Maurice, but he still loves Jeanette and Jeanette can no longer deny that she loves him, too.
But Maurice’s cover is blown when one day he sees Jeanette’s seamstress working on a new riding habit for her and he thinks he could do better. First he rudely dismisses the seamstress, but then the family is scandalized when he is caught with a semi-dressed Jeanette. At last it comes out that he’s a tailor, not a Baron, and Maurice catches the next train out of there. The only person not outraged by this revelation is Jeanette, who hops on the fastest horse she can find and chases him down.
I really enjoyed Love Me Tonight. I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite movies, but it is very light, charming, and witty. The cast is wonderful and you’ve really got to see its incredibly lavish sets. Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald may be the stars, and they’re great, but Myrna Loy is a total scene stealer. Myrna’s character is very man crazed and one of my favorite moments of the movie is when Gilbert asks her if she could go for a doctor and she says, “Yes! Bring him right in!” Her delivery of that line is classic. She says it in total Myrna Loy fashion and it’s perfect for this movie.
The Hollywood Revue 
This is one of my most favorite films. It is perfection – a perfect movie bonbon!
I really want to see this again before too long. I remember loving it (especially Loy – you’re right, she totally steals the show) and thinking it was the best Lubitsch film that Lubitsch didn’t make. I’m sure that’s a disservice to Rouben Mamoulian who’s a fine director, but Love Me Tonight always seem like the capstone to the Lubitsch-directed series of MacDonald-Chevalier vehicles – and somehow manages to be better than any of the ones Lubitsch actually did direct.
The first time I saw it, I came in a few minutes late and missed the credits so I didn’t realize that it wasn’t an Ernst Lubitsch film until the movie was over and I looked it up on IMDB. It definitely has the stylistic feel of a Lubitsch film. His style was often imitated and never quite duplicated, but Mamoulian came pretty darn close.
I’m pretty sure I was crediting it to Lubitsch for years before I learned better. I’m glad to see others are in my mindspace on that!