One hour with you

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Movie
German title One hour with you
Original title One hour with you
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ernst Lubitsch , individual scenes George Cukor
script Samson Raphaelson
production Ernst Lubitsch
music W. Franke Harling,
Oscar Straus ,
Rudolph G. Kopp,
John Leipold
camera Victor Milner
cut William Shea
occupation

One Hour with You (Original: One Hour with You ) from 1932 is an American musical by Ernst Lubitsch . The film is a remake of his film Die Ehe im Kreis (Original: The Marriage Circle ) from 1924. Both are based on the comedy Nur ein Traum by Lothar Schmidt, first performed in 1909 .

action

Doctor Bertier, a successful Parisian gynecologist, loves his beautiful wife. But as a charmer, he also risks looking at other beautiful women. In the middle of the rain, he and an unknown beauty share a taxi, which leads him to an extended flirtation. But as soon as he has to think about his own wife, he rushes out of the taxi.

But everything is in vain, because of all things this beautiful stranger is introduced to him one day as the best friend of his own wife. Mitzi, as her name is, makes no secret of the fact that she finds him extremely attractive. She simply pretends to be sick and Bertier's own wife, of all people, urges her husband not to abandon her sick friend when he refuses to visit her at home. So fate takes its course.

Only when his wife finds out does she cheat on him - jealous as she is - with a lover. Despite all the complications, there is a happy ending.

background

With the advent of the talkie , the musical genre inevitably became very popular. The oversupply led to a rapid decline in public interest in mid-1930. Only the success of One Hour with You brought the turning point. Until then, most films were a loose sequence of song numbers that were hardly linked by plot, but Lubitsch made the songs an integral part of the plot.

The film was based on Lothar Schmidt's operetta Nur ein Traum , which Lubitsch had made into a film in 1924 under the title The Marriage Circle with Florence Vidor and Monte Blue. Lubitsch initially oversaw the preparations when problems with his anti-war film The Man I Killed forced him to hand over directing to George Cukor . An hour with you finally went into production on November 13, 1931, with Lubitsch as executive producer. From the beginning there was tension between Cukor and Lubitsch. The dispute escalated when Lubitsch asked to see the daily recordings. The studio then decided to use Lubitsch as a director alongside Cukor. In the end, Lubitsch demanded sole naming as a director, whereupon Cukor sued the studio. The legal dispute ended with Cukor's application for an injunction against the film distribution on March 8, 1932. Cukor was right, but an hour had already gone to the national distribution with you . Only Lubitsch was named as director in the copies. The dispute eventually led to Cukor accepting an offer from David O. Selznick and switching to RKO .

The film reunited the popular screen couple Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald , who already played together in 1929 for The Smiling Leutnant . Chevalier was the biggest screen star with the advent of the talkie, Paramount, but the following films were less and less popular. Both stars were to appear together again in 1934 in Lubitsch's version of the merry widow , but only after Grace Moore was rejected in the role of the widow. Originally, Lubitsch wanted to cast the role of Mitzi with the up-and-coming Kay Francis , but the actress was already engaged elsewhere. It wasn't until months later that she filmed Trouble in Paradise with Lubitsch .

At the same time as the English version, the French version Une heure près de toi was filmed, in which Lili Damita took on the role of Mitzi Olivier.

Awards

The film was nominated for an Oscar for best film of the 1931/1932 season.

Reviews

The film received critical acclaim and appreciation.

The New York Times , however, had trouble classifying the film and named One Hour with You :

almost an operetta.
almost an operetta.

Motion Picture Herald , a well-known trade magazine of the day, warned of the somewhat frivolous content:

[it is] a bit of a risk for small town audiences. [..] neighborhood theaters should [it] play away from Sundays.
[It's] a little daring for the small-town crowd. [..] Suburban cinemas shouldn't play [him] on Sundays.

literature

  • Lothar Schmidt : Just a dream. Comedy in 3 acts. Müller, Munich, Leipzig 1909.

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