The Love Parade (1929)
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The Love Parade Movie Review
The Love Parade is a 1929 musical comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. It’s a lot of fun.
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“Why am I always awakened from my dreams?“
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The plot itself is fairly simple and the most standard aspect of an otherwise authentic movie. It serves its purpose, but is far from great. The execution and the way it’s told, however, is worth praising. It’s by far the most entertaining Best Picture nominee from this particular year.
So the film is a musical which came out in 1929 and is infinitely superior to countless other genre films in no small part thanks to terrific sound recording as it sounds very modern for 1929 and not too painful to listen too. But the biggest reason why the film is above other contemporary genre fares lies in the placement of its songs in the context of the story. Not only are the songs fun, but they all serve their purpose to progress the storyline and strengthen the characters.
The soundtrack is actually quite strong. It has its forgettable numbers, but a couple of them really are memorable. Dream Lover is very much an early Disney Princess kind of song so obviously I really liked it. My Love Parade is the sweetest scene in the film as seeing the two sing together as they fall in love was endearing and it’s a fun number. But the highlight is March of the Grenadiers as the most purely entertaining and catchy song here.
The Love Parade is also quite good as a comedy, though admittedly it is much funnier and entertaining in the first half as the second one isn’t as good. Maurice Chevalier definitely is exceedingly charming in his role with his good looks and a lot of suaveness. But I would actually say that Jeanette MacDonald did a better acting job and it’s a shame that she was snubbed by the Academy as she’s so good here.
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The film is not particularly well paced and it should have been better edited and shorter in length, but it’s still pretty entertaining, especially for its time. Ernst Lubitsch definitely infused the film with his signature touch and thus made a very successful talkie debut. All of its six Oscar nominations are at least somewhat earned, but the most earned ones are the technical aspects as the film is stupendously shot and recorded.
The Love Parade is a strong sound film debut for Ernst Lubitsch who directed the film so well and with his signature fun touch. Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald are both so charming together. The plot is slim, but the humor is very good, the film is stupendously shot and recorded for its time and the soundtrack is also quite strong with the best numbers being March of the Grenadiers and My Love Parade.
