A umber of her most famous songs feature in the film. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription alternatives - along with the availability of 'Love Me or Leave Me' on each platform. But Vidor chose to shoot Day’s final song exclusively from Cagney’s distant perspective. Ett-ling?”), you need a serious Cagney primer. But I think Day’s strong vocals, graceful dancing and dazzling blue dress offset any staging limitations the director, Charles Vidor, may have imposed. Gorgeous blu-ray release of Doris Day's finest performance! It’s a Doris Day that we’ve never seen before and the heartbreaking reality that she brings to every scene is unforgettable. For Day to act this role convincingly, she had to undergo a significant image transformation and traverse a far wider acting range than she had attempted before. Colors pop, grain looks natural, contrast is bang on and the DTS stereo is a wowzer to boot. The viewer is fully invested at that point in seeing Day / Etting achieve crowning success and the number is a fitting first act climax. That it is also full of music adds to its popularity, though it’s more of a drama with a musical setting than a traditional musical. Other sources indicate that Ava Gardner and Jane Russell were both attached to the part before Day was hired. Cagney is by all accounts one of the most dynamic actors to ever appear on screen. His prognostication proved to be right on the money. Love Me or Leave Me is an Drama, Music, Romance movie that was released in 1955 and has a run time of 2 hr 2 min. Directed by Charles Vidor. Based on the career of twenties music star Ruth Etting and her relationship with the controlling hoodlum Moe “the Gimp” Snyder, it’s probably the main reason Etting is remembered today. Producer Joe Pasternak convinced Day to accept the role because she would give the part some dignity that would play away from the vulgarity. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2006. The role fit Cagney perfectly and he urged producers to cast Doris Day opposite him. Ruth Etting died on September 24, 1978, in Colorado Springs. Snyder, also known as “The Gimp” because of a club foot, spotted Etting at a speakeasy and became her manager to launch her career. James Cagney to Doris Day, “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955). Jimmy Cagney tops the cast with an Oscar-nominated performance as Etting's "mentor" Martin Snyder. Oscar Winning documentary short from 1960. Etting and Alderman remained married until his death in Denver in 1966. However, it is her rendition of “It All Depends on You”, accompanied by only a piano, in which she creates a lasting image. Fortunately, in Love Me or Leave Me, Doris got the role of a lifetime playing Ruth Etting, in a fictional account of the singers' rise to stardom. Day and Cagney shine in superb 1954 Etting biopic. She had a quiet way of speaking and singing. James Cagney and Doris Day in “Love Me or Leave Me”. A fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom. the scandal was too much for her career to survive. Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2019. The combustible Jimmy Cagney was cast first in the role of Marty (“the Gimp”) Snyder, the small time Chicago hoodlum who ran a laundry business that served lower rung Chicago nightclubs. Each character feeds off what the other can do for them in pure self-interest while gradually growing to care about each other in spite of the impossibility of their union. Cagney has such a strong personality and usually dominates any role he plays. Doris Day wrote in her autobiography that she hesitated before accepting the lead in this film. A wonderful biopic of singer Ruth Etting in which Doris Day plays against type. Buy with confidence and prepare to settle in with one of the best 50s movie musicals in a transfer you will want to bask in and watch over and over again! It was the story of 20’s and 30’s chanteuse, Ruth Etting and her relationship with Marty “The Gimp” Snyder. He basically bullied Chicago nightclub owners into hiring her until word got out that she was indeed a very talented singer. This film is about love and obsession, about being rejected and also about being a control freak. From Great Entertainers Blogspot: 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. In her book, Doris Day, Her Own Story, she said: I prepared for the role by listening to all the Ruth Etting records. His role as Johnny the pianist who first notices Etting’s vocal gifts and falls for her is thankless, but Mitchell does nothing to make the character noteworthy or interesting.”. Need to watch 'Love Me or Leave Me' in the comfort of your own home? That it is also full of music adds to its popularity, though it’s more of a drama with a musical setting than a traditional musical. The rise of Etting, from dance hall girl to Ziegfeld star was told amidst the settings of Chicago and New York. Cameron Mitchell is adequate but completely overshadowed by Day and Cagney. He once said that Doris Day illustrated his definition of good acting: “Just plant yourself, look the other person in the eye and tell him the truth.”. Alderman, who was raised in Colorado Springs, operated a restaurant there for a time. Clearly, Day and Cagney were born to play these unforgettable and timeless characters. All her life Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was the place... Bob Hope stars in this laugh-packed wild west spoof co-starring Jane R... A man hypnotizes a young woman into being an opera singer. She ultimately accepted the lead role in a major MGM musical biography of 1920’s torch singer Ruth Etting called Love Me or Leave Me. The well-fashioned script pulls no punches in it’s depiction of the sometimes seamy and tawdry lives of its principal characters. ", "Everyone ends up in the same damned place. I wish Day and Cagney had done more films together (other than West Point Story). It was not my intention to mimic her, but to suggest her style with little inflections and shadings that I picked up from the recordings.”. The first project she chose was a lavish musical biography at MGM entitled, “Love Me or Leave Me”. It is one of those movies you can watch over and over again without failing to be mesmerized by the potent chemistry of the leading actors. The result is one of the best musical dramas ever committed to film. Brilliant performances by Doris Day and James Cagney highlight this story of jazz singing sensation Ruth Etting and the vicious Chicago hood who controlled her life. Doris Day and James Cagney in “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955). It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Now, before we get into the various whats and wheres of how you can watch 'Love Me or Leave Me' right now, here are some finer points about the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama flick. Of course it wasn’t all drama, being the stars of a lavish MGM film. Here's the plot: "A fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom." It has received poor reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.1. Day is matched with the incomparable James Cagney as her mentally and physically abusive gangster-husband Marty Snyder. A great performance from Doris Day as a 1920s singer Ruth Ettings making her way to the top but under the obsesive control of a Chicago racketeer played by James Cagney again giving a wonderful perfomance.Also Cameron Mitchell is great as Doris Days love interest.Good to see these early films getting the blu ray treatment they desereve,and being presented as they were ment to be seen in their original format,in this case 2.55.1.cinemascope. “Love Me or Leave Me” is a powerful film largely due to the performances of Doris Day and James Cagney. Ruth Etting reportedly disapproved of Day playing her. Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2016. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb. It opened that summer to critical and box-office kudos. For Ruth. Doris Day offers a powerful dramatic performance with her usual finesse in song, and James Cagney gives us a variation on all those goons he played in Warner's gangland pics of the thirties in this edifying, exemplary movie musical that is as potent as a melodrama as it is as a classic Hollywood homegrown musical. Doris Day with the film’s director Charles Vidor. Released May 26th, 1955, 'Love Me or Leave Me' stars Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith The movie has a runtime of about 2 hr 2 … Ruth Etting was a notable jazz vocalist who came from very humble beginnings and made it to the big time by relying on the strong-arm tactics of a small time Chicago gangster named Martin Snyder. http://www.classicfilmsreloaded.com/wp-content/uploads/lovemeorleaveme-slap-show0.flv, The Prince and the Showgirl – Behind the Scenes. To those who have never really listened to her voice. Doris Day and James Cagney in “Love Me or Leave Me”, At times, you find yourself rooting for him over Doris Day because no one is immune to desperately wanting someone or something they cannot have.”. Doris Day, Iconic Movie Star and Singer, Dies at Age 97. She is trying to break free and finds love with another person which annoys The Gimp leading to the films denouement. Not to say that Jane Powell was a bad actress, but she did not have the range that Doris Day had. For the most part, the supporting characters are relegated to the sidelines while the two leads hold court center stage. In 1955, after seven years as a major star at Warner Brothers and a string of successful films, Doris Day began to freelance. 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”. The couple relocated to an eight-acre farm outside of Colorado Springs in 1938. Day especially deserved more opportunities to show her worth. The film also boasts one of the most tuneful musical scores ever with Day doing full justice to such classics as “Ten Cents A Dance,” “Mean to Me” and “You Made Me Love You” among others. James Cagney is nothing short of outstanding as Marty Snyder and his scenes with Day crackle with intensity. It was a classic case of against-type casting that paid huge dividends for the actress and the film. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2016, Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Day and Cagney make this one of the best biopics ever. She worried that audiences would not accept her playing a sexy and overtly ambitious character. Ditto for Warner Archive's newly remastered Blu-ray, looking years younger than it ought. She made a few attempts at a comeback but her days as America’s Sweetheart were over. Rentals include 30 days to start watching this video and 48 hours to finish once started. It is this monstrous fragility that makes Etting repulsed and fearful of him, indebted to him, but also unwilling to hurt him even in the final act. Doris Day gives a tour de force performance as Etting. ", "The Helen Reddy story and the song that inspired a revolution", 'Shithouse' Interviews with Cooper Raiff & Jay Duplass. James Cagney slaps Doris Day in “Love Me or Leave Me”. It’s interesting that a Life Magazine photographer was on hand for the filming and the photographs soon made their way into the magazine, below. His pitch perfect performance makes it clear that he is madly in love with Etting to the point of obsession. This video is unavailable. No way to leave this love affair - a powerful musical in a gorgeous transfer, Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2017. Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2016. Others have expressed disappointment with the lack of Day close-ups when she sings the title tune at the end of the film. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Quickly browse titles in our catalog based on the ones you have picked. Love Me or Leave Me is available to watch and stream, buy on demand at Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube VOD online.