Maurice Chevalier, C or D?

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This is where you share your thoughts on Maurice Chevalier.

http://www.moviecard.com/biscuit/bis-ce/bis-ce-chevmac.jpg

I just saw Lubitsch's The Love Parade last night, and there is something decidedly...overripe about Mr. Chevalier that I find both a bit appealing a bit gross. He seemed very cabaret, while Jeanette MacDonald seemed more light opera. I've also seen Gigi but that was a while ago. Also noted his *ahem* cameo appearance in The Sorrow and the Pity.

Is he a more fluent actor in other films? Does he always play this extreme caricature of zee Frenchman? What should I see next? What are his recordings like?

(note: I will be seeing One Hour with You later this month.)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 9 January 2003 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

He likes little girls.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 9 January 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Mr. Chevalier could sing in a relaxed, conversational manner. He makes it look easy, but that's deceptive. It is common to underrate him on his singing (the same happens to Fred Astaire and Jimmy Durante).

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.

― Aimless, Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:17 (twenty-two years ago)

mentioned in annie hall & impersonated a nukmber of times in monkey business=maybe classic.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Amateurist: Who are you? And oh yeah, classic. To my limited knowledge, he always played the caricature. See: Gigi. It fills me with disgust, the premise, Maurice singing about 'leetle girls" yet I can't stop watching. The duet: It's a bore! with Maurice's cousin is really good. This is actually a disguting movie about what a girl has to do to enter womanhood. But there's iceskating! I also like the song Mimi (Rodgers&Hart). Rosemary to thread, and Momus too...

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 9 January 2003 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know for what review it was written, but "Mimi" also appears in Love Me Tonight with Chevalier which sits atop my "really want to see" list (the title song is very beautiful in Annette Hanshaw's rendition).

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?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 9 January 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

All of his recordings are worth tracking down!

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 9 January 2003 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey Mary, did you ever see my Maurice Chevalier and Hayley Mills album?

― rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 9 January 2003 23:18 (twenty-two years ago)

No! I'm coming back to your house ASAP!

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 9 January 2003 23:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yay!

― rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 9 January 2003 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a Hayley Mills—Maurice Chevalier duet album?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 9 January 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

He doesn't like little girls. He just thanks 'eaven that they grow into smashing birds.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 10 January 2003 00:11 (twenty-two years ago)

sometimes.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 10 January 2003 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, sometimes they get fat and ugly. But Maurice loves 'em all.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 10 January 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I was hoping I'd get to be the first to mention the all-four-Marx-Brothers-try-to-impersonate-Chevalier-at-once scene.

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

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 10 January 2003 01:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Amateurist: Who are you?

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

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

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 10 January 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw One Hour with You, another musical with Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald today. There wasn't a second of dead time in this film and it showed off Chevalier at his best--I'm sold. The film itself was totally, thoroughly amoral (the title means what you think it means). I loved it.

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.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 12 January 2003 08:23 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2513335409

Let the bidding commence.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

oh, how i long for the halcyon days when i was " the talk of New York ILXdom"!

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

"sank heavens for leetle geerls" is a disgusting song.

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

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Maurice is better as an older gent: actually liked him in Gigi, whereas before (in his younger days, I couldn't stand him!

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

he was like a walking penis in those early movies!

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

More obvious, anyway....

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 23:04 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.annettefunicello.net/albums/bv3313.JPG

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 01:44 (twenty-two years ago)

oh. my. god.

rosemary, two proposals:

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

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

1) we'll see
2) ok, but the MC/HM bits are just narrations between the songs, they don't sing.

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:25 (twenty-two years ago)

huh? who does the songs then?

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Annette Funicello does three of them.

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 03:07 (twenty-two years ago)

that's a total rip-off!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

maurice chevalier and hayley mills LIED!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

i think the statute of limitations is in effect, s1utsky.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

hello, do you not see the names ANNETTE, BILLY STORM, and The SYLTE SISTERS???

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I think they misspelled "style"

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

An Oral History of This Thread

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

jesus what the hell am I talking about

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Hell, don't ask me.

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:36 (twenty-two years ago)

(MC and HM do speak in French at one point on this record by the way.)

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Were they friends or something?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:38 (twenty-two years ago)

(I know they probably weren't, but it's funny to imagine that they were. or maybe not funny at all!)

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:39 (twenty-two years ago)

friends or "friends"?

(They were in a movie together.)

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Is Teen Street the movie? because now everything makes sense.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:54 (twenty-two years ago)

No, it was In Search of the Castaways

― rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:59 (twenty-two years ago)

just imagine the bafflement of the people in the year 2407 who discover this album lying next to an unopened bottle of fanta and a trucker hat.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 05:53 (twenty-two years ago)

He seems to be cropping up in a bunch of the Lubitsch movies over at Film Forum these days.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

yes! those are the ones I saw in Chicago earlier this year! go, Mary, go! go go!

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

OH YOU AMERICANS AND YOUR LUBITSCH FESTS I WEEP.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

mary you should hire those bootleggers from chinatown to take their pocket cameras into film forum and make some dvds for poor slutsky.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 23:18 (twenty-two years ago)

ha! oh for a golden age of romantic comedy bootlegging underground!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Thursday, 3 July 2003 00:39 (twenty-two years ago)

three weeks pass...

I watched Gigi tonight. chevalier is so pervily avuncular it made me laugh.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 28 July 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I learned a new word today! "Avuncular"!

This is my favorite thread.

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

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 1 August 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

Oh my god, Rosemary, that Teen Street record is terrifying.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 7 September 2003 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Yooo KNOW it, Hay-Lay, yooo KNOW it.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Sunday, 7 September 2003 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

Amateurist, you never weighed in on The Merry Widow.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

D, only for the fact he thinks putting shoes on the wrong foot is "fashionable"

― JTS (JTS), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 18:58 (nineteen years ago)

I just noticed the "Maurice Chevalier and Hayley Mills take you to Teen Street" record. If you go cross-eyed you can see Chrispian Mills :)

― JTS (JTS), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

seven years pass...

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

― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Wednesday, 20 February 2013 14:54 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

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?

― Diana Fire (j.lu), Wednesday, 16 August 2017 17:50 (eight years ago)

two weeks pass...

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.

― Diana Fire (j.lu), Sunday, 3 September 2017 00:25 (seven years ago)

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