Customer Reviews

Love Me Or Leave Me [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Doris Day is stunning in this biopic of jazz singer Ruth Etting, who was known as "America's sweetheart of song". After watching this film, I read some biographical material, and it would seem the film is very true to her life.
Ms. Day sings up a storm (the musical numbers are terrific), and gives a performance with a lot of depth, playing a complex personality caught in a hellbound relationship.

Cagney, as her thug boyfriend/manager, is magnificent. Every gesture and facial expression is a riveting work of art. He was an extraordinary, multi-faceted actor, and this is a performance not to miss.
Cameron Mitchell is also excellent as the pianist who loves her, but is shut out of her life.

Well written, directed and edited, it's a powerful story of control, obsession, and abuse. A downward spiral that's hard to break...when someone tells her "You're making a big mistake", she says: "I've made so many, one more won't make a difference".

This is a fabulous film. It has drama, strong characters, great acting, and marvelous music !
Doris Day was a songbird, and a mighty fine actress too.

In 1955, after seven years as a major star at Warner Brothers and a string of successful films, Doris Day began to free lance. The first project she chose was a lavish musical biography at MGM entitled, "Love Me or Leave Me". It was the story of 20's and 30's chaunteuse, Ruth Etting and her relationship with Marty "The Gimp" Snyder. It opened that summer to critical and box-office kudos.

The well-fashioned script pulls no punches in it's depiction of the sometimes seamy and tawdry lives of it's principal characters. Etting and Snyder often used one another for their own personal gain and, for a change, the film doe not gloss over some of the less than savory aspects of their lives. The result is one of the best musical dramas ever committed to film.

The rise of Etting, from dance hall girl to Ziegfeld star was told amidst the settings of Chicago and New York. She meets Snyder, who wants to use her and utilizes his obsession with her in order to attain her goal - stardom. Their relationship is one that is filled with violence, jealousy, and rage, and the realism with which this is presented is unsettling. Those who like their musicals served up with a sugar coating should steer clear of this memorable classic.

Doris Day gives a tour de force performance as Etting. It's a Doris Day that we've never seen before and the heartbreaking reality that she brings to ever scene is unforgettable. Vocally, she sings with passion and style, dazzling with such song classics as "Shakin the Blues Away", "Ten Cents a Dance" and "You Made Me Love You", and the Oscar nominated, "I'll Never Stop Loving You". However, it is her rendition of "It All Depends on You", accompanied by only a piano, in which she creates a lasting image. To those who have never really listened to her voice. her range,phrasing, breath control and tonal quality, not to mention the feeling that she puts into a song, will make them easily become admirers of what may be one of the finest female pop voices in music history.

James Cagney is nothing short of outstanding as Marty Snyder and his scenes with Day crackle with intensity. Cameron Mitchell as Johnny, the man Ruth loves, is also fine and MGM has spared no expense in making this a production of the highest calibre. It's a film for the ages!

There are many wonderful Hollywood musicals that take up the story line of a composer or a singer, like LADY SINGS THE BLUES, NIGHT AND DAY, WORDS AND MUSIC, DEEP IN MY HEART, THE AL JOLSON STORY, and RHAPSODY IN BLUE. But the one movie that stands out from all the rest is LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME. It is the absolutely perfect blending of story and song. The one that comes closest to it is the AL JOLSON STORY, but the "story" in that one isn't as related to the plot as this Doris Day-James Cagney production. Here, the songs Ruth Etting sang in the era of the Great Depression somehow help tell the story of her life; maybe her most popular songs were the ones that she felt closest to. Well, this movie certainly brings out the relationship between song and story in a way that has never been equalled in a biographical movie. Of course, "biography" puts a limitation on musical films; there is no room for the totally free-wheeling creativity of films like SINGING IN THE RAIN or THE BANDWAGON. But it also imposes a kind of unity that grows out of the life story of the singer or composer who is the subject of the biography. And as we empathize with the story, we like the songs even more. I've often wondered why LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME is not given the acclaim it so richly deserves. Maybe some viewers are so taken with the charisma of James Cagney (the greatest all-around star Hollywood has ever produced!) that they are distracted. Maybe some viewers "get into" the story so much that they don't see all that's going on with the music. The cure for all this, of course, is to watch this great film over and over again, and then repeat the experience. It truly gets better every time! And, one final kudo to Doris Day, that remarkable, remarkable woman. She made absolutely no attempt to imitate Ruth Etting's voice, because Ruth Etting had a sound of her very own (like Bing Crosby's sound, which has never been imitated). No, what Doris Day did was to get into the Ruth Etting character so thoroughly that she made it her own. And the result is the same degree of poignancy that you experience in hearing the original Ruth Etting recordings! It's almost weird, hearing two totally different singers sing the same songs with the same emotion. I know of nothing else like it. Bottom line: enjoy this great movie in good health many many times!

One of the most talented performers to come out of the big band era a wonderful singer, and pretty good dramatic actress,
Doris Day's performance as torch singer Ruth Etting is first class, ably assisted by such hugely talented people as "mean man" James Cagney - who for the only time in his career since his rise as a leading man in the 30's, agreed for Miss Day to have top billing, reasoning that her charcter was more central to the film than his, the psycho Marty "the Gimp" Snyder.
Joe Pasternak was Producer, and King Vidor directed.
Add to this the music of Sammy Cahn & the master Irving Berlin, beautiful songs which Miss Day really puts her heart and soul into, and you have the recipe for the great success of Love Me Or Leave Me in 1955 through to today.
The songs all stand up today (as you would expect) Ten Cents A Dance, Shakin' the Blues Away, I'll Never Stop Loving You,It All Depends On You,You Made Me Love You etc.
I've always thought this was Doris Day's best work, great songs,
and a well written dramatic role she could really get her teeth into. Roles as good as this don't come along too often, I know, but what a great pity she went down the path of poorly written, silly comedies,(like that other iconic,musical great, Elvis Presley)coming up for air rarely with an occasional good film.
Cagney requested her for this film - they had worked together once before in 1950's West Point Story - and he loved working with her.
As a footnote, both Miss Etting and Mr Snyder were given script approval before Love Me Or Leave Me went into production, and despite the rather unflattering picture painted of them in the film, neither objected - a sure sign of authenticity.
It's interesting to note Ruth Etting did remark however that she was never a dance hall girl, but clearly that section was added to accomodate the song Ten Cents A Dance.
A wonderful movie, a must have for fans and music lovers alike

In the annals of pop music, musical films and outstanding entertainment careers few can match that of Doris Day, either in longevity or quality. Her naturally superb vocal talents were honed at a very early age (17) singing with top territorial big bands and ultimately with the great Les Brown Band of Renown with whom she had her first hit record, "Sentimental Journey", in 1945. That experience helped her develop the power, depth, phrasing and lyrical vocal style that made her the finest pop vocalist of all time. Nowhere is that talent more evident than in this Academy Award nominated film on the life of songstress Ruth Etting. Music wise the songs are incomparable as are the orchestrations and Doris' renditions. One need only to listen to the emotion and purity of "Never Look Back", "It All Depends On You" and "I'll Never Stop Loving You" with just piano accompaniment to hear how she had no rivals then, and especially now, in the vocal arena.

The film takes some liberties with facts and characterizations as all bio films do but who cares? The acting is first rate with Jimmy Cagney as the controlling minor league thug, Marty Snyder, Cameron Michell as her real love and musical director, Johnny, and veteran character actor, Robert Keith, as the faithful supporting booking agent. It is said that Cagney, who was nominated for his third Oscar as Snyder, had no qualms about getting second billing to the much younger Day.

As film bios go, this one is hard to beat. Outstnding talent, a great script, incredible music and outstanding musical performances puts "Love Me Or Leave Me" at the top of all music biographies. I first viewed this film in 1955 as a very young and impressionable kid. It has not lost a thing over time, especially when weighed against the tripe and fluff that eminates from Hollywood now. I recently got the soundtrack CD and it is outstanding in sound quality. Miss Day recently turned 81 and is still beautiful and active in Carmel California. This performance and her equally great 1951 performance in "Young Man With A Horn" remain my favorite Doris Day films.

Why do certain movies stay in the mind even though they do not have characters the viewer particularly identifies with?
One reason is that these films have characters unforgettably strong. This movie has Doris Day as Ruth Etting, and James Cagney as Marty(The Gimp) Snyder. Doris Day gives her greatest screen performance, her singing is truly remarkable including a heart- wrenching rendering of the title song of the movie. Cagney is so convincing so paradoxically domineering difficult and pathetic in his hopeless love of the girl he is helping making a star. The disorder and unhappiness of troubled lives give a feeling of tough authenticity. It has the special vibrancy Cagney always brought to his roles. Doris Day will never have a performance close to this one in her life.
Simply a very good and enjoyable movie.

In a radical departure from the standard musicals of the day, LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME provides a hard-edged love story (based on truth) with Jazz Age tunes surrounding it, chronicling the life of Prohibition-era torch singer Ruth Etting. This was a radical departure for Doris Day as well: she is nothing less than sensational in her performance and vocals. I won't go into details of the film's plot because it would take away the enjoyment of one of Day's least typical movies. Jimmy Cagney sizzles in his portrayal of Marty "The Gimp" , Etting's hoodlum mentor: at age 56, he was still a dynamo. Etting herself was not pleased with the film because it took liberties with the truth. Oh, well. That's Hollywood! She declined to sue the studio (M-G-M) because she was cautioned by her pal, Walter Winchell, that suing would only bring more rumours and scandal. The great vintage songs include the title tune, AT SUNDOWN, TEN CENTS A DANCE, YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU, FIVE FOOT TWO & SAM, THE OLD ACCORDIAN MAN. The film was a smash hit to both the quite frankly surprised public and critics alike: it garnered over 4 MILLION in profits at the box-office.

If you like music and gangsters this one I'm sure you will love.
Doris Day plays the songstress Ruth Etting who's trying to make it in show business. James Cagney who plays a well known Chicago racketeer Martin the Gimp is obsessed with her. Things get out of control between the two. A very exciting film taking you back to the roaring 20's. Great for your film collection.

Ms. Day should have received an Oscar for this. Miss Girl Next Door really showed what she was made of. If you like suspense, glamor and real singing and acting, this is the movie for you. The restoration is wonderful and the sound terriffic. One of my favorite movies of all times. Cagney is at the top of his game and he and Day work GREAT together. This movie was produced when all the big musicals were coming to an end. SHE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN AN OSCAR, I'M TELLING YOU.

Doris Day was at the peak of her popularity when she signed on at MGM after a productive career at Warner Brothers to star with one of the screen's legendary tough guys to do a biopic of one of the twenties' leading nightclub singers. Gangster film legend James Cagney personally recommended Doris Day to star with him in "Love Me or Leave Me," indicating once more that great talent can spot the authentic article in others.

The 1955 release centered around the stormy life of twenties' singing sensation Ruth Etting, who worked her way from "dime a dance" parlors in Chicago to starring in productions of Flo Ziegfeld on Broadway. The picture operates on two levels, one exhibiting Day's brilliant talents as a singer and the other on an increasingly intensifying triangle situation involving Cagney and the man the singer really loves, played by Cameron Mitchell.

While it is obvious that Day as Etting never romantically loved the man who used his clout as a Chicago gangster to help move her up the ladder to stardom initially in Chicago and then New York, with Hollywood constituting the last stop, she felt such an overriding obligation that the star married the Windy City mobster Moe "The Gimp" Snyder. The nickname referred to the limp accompanying the mobster's walk.

An element of tension surfaces when Etting begins working with accompanist Johnny Alderman, played by Cameron Mitchell. While Snyder pays Alderman handsomely to fine tune the brilliant talents of the woman he discovered and loves, he is shrewd enough to realize that Etting holds romantic feelings for him and that this feeling is mutual.

In between tense moments regarding her personal life, which prompted her to take to drink, the singer wowed audiences with her talents. Day has never looked more gorgeous or sounded better as she sings a constellation of great hits from the Tin Pan Alley era of American song, including the film's title number, "Love Me or Leave Me" along with "Ten Cents a Dance" and the magnificent torch song, "I'll Never Stop Loving You," which provides additional significance since it registers the feelings of Etting and Alderman for each other.

Snyder's raging jealousy reaches its peak when his wife is in Hollywood working in films with Alderman as her accompanist and the mobster is in the process of opening a Hollywood nightclub. The film comes to its rousing thematic conclusion at that point.

All three principals of the story, Etting, Snyder and Alderman were alive when MGM was shooting the film and each was provided with script approval. By then Etting was living with husband Alderman in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they lived out their lives after the singer's divorce from mobster Snyder.