st-shot Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette McDonald hooked up for the first of their four pairings in this early sound Ernst Lubitsch musical. It's a silly affair as most musicals of the day were but this being pre-code director Lubitsch takes every opportunity to invoke sexual innuendo and keep Ms. McDonald in diaphanous negligees.Much to the disappointment of her ministers Queen Louise of Sylvania is resigned to the fact she will never find a suitable husband. Enter Count Renard who may not be suitable for affairs of state but irresistible in affairs of love. They marry and the free range rogue is quickly fenced in an ordered to act properly with his new title and responsibilities by Louise who pulls rank on him. Renaud soon begins to chafe at the trappings of royalty and what he sees as amounting to role reversal and decides to walk. Such a scandal could rock Sylvania to its foundation. A desperate Louise attempts to balance both issues without offending chauvinist Renaud's already wounded manhood.Inane as place and premise may be Lubitsh keeps things racy throughout while taking satiric pokes at societal hypocrisy and royal obsequiousness. He magnifies and compares the royal duo's predicament of maintaining decorum and propriety while the help, energetically and acrobatically performed by Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth, in unabashed declaration announce it's great to be a commoner.The set design and the cinematography by Victor Milner gives the film a 14 carat opulence and Mo and Mac look dashing and ravishing most of the time in uniform and gown which allows this fairy tale of a musical to play itself out whimsically and seductively courtesy of Lubitsch's deft touch.

J. Spurlin Count Alfred (Maurice Chevalier) has disgraced his home country of Sylvania with one too many scandalous affairs with married women, and the ambassador of Sylvania commands him to return home. Alfred's manservant, Jacques (Lupino Lane), begs to come along, and his master relents. Alfred, burdened with a newly acquired French accent that makes him sound most un-Sylvanian, fears the wrath of his queen (Jeanette MacDonald). But instead of having him shot, she falls in love with him, and he with her. The entire kingdom, which has had nothing on its mind except seeing the queen get married, is thrilled. As Jacques and Lulu the maid (Lillian Roth) conduct their own romance, reveling in their commonness, Alfred discovers at the altar that his own marriage will be most uncommon - and a dire threat to his manhood. He may be marrying a queen, but he most definitely won't be a king.Ernst Lubitsch directed this marvelous technical and artistic achievement back when other early sound films were still stumbling along. Four outstanding performances from four witty and charming performers (Chevalier, MacDonald, Lane and Roth) grace this lavishly produced musical comedy with its champagne-bubble songs and sexually-charged dialogue.

dai_boden the sort of film that filmmakers to day are unable to make. it is too simple for them. it has a story with a beginning, middle and end. far too simple for the current crop of genius. the stars were real stars i swear they sometimes glittered. the directors famous touch was in fine form and even after many years i can remember walking home in a romantic glow. could anyone do the same after watching one of to days EPICS. i agree there must have been sound faults and other technical problems though i do not remember them. later on i heard a radio version also enjoyed. like far too many films of the past the love parade is unavailable to us on video or DVD. it may have been damaged and no longer usable though i do hope not. if there is any way to urge the current copyright owners to re-issue the film i would certainly like to be involved. are there other enthusiasts out there who agree?

netwallah There isn't much to this early Ruritanian musical, adapted from some sort of stage play to feature the singing of Maurice Chevalier, the rakish count Alfred Renard, and Jeanette MacDonald as Queen Louise of Sylvania. In the early sections the count is a cheerfully cynical Don Juan, and in the end Petruchio. That is, he is a libertine in Paris and gets sent home, where he marries the queen, but soon tires of being second and uses coolness and distance to teach her a lesson. The refeminization of the dominant woman—that is, stripping her of her power, leaving her simpering—is rather unpleasant. MacDonald is earnest but unconvincing as a queen, largely because of her relaxed posture and her accent, though she sings like a good stage monarch. She and Chevalier do have the good grace to be self-parodic—he's at his best explaining, with a charming grin, why he is the only one in the movie with a French accent. There's a charming second couple, the count's valet (Lupino Lane) and the maid Lulu (Lillian Roth), who parallel the queen's courtship of the count with their own rather cruder antics. Also nice is to hear the rumbling voice of the great character actor Eugene Palette, who plays a lamentably small part, but plays it well.