Themes: Musician's Life, Ladder to the Top, Crumbling Marriages
Main Cast: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 122 minutes
Plot
One of the gutsiest movie musicals of the 1950s, Love Me or Leave Me is the true story of 1930s torch-singer Ruth Etting, here played by Doris Day. While working in a dime-a-dance joint, Ruth is discovered by Chicago racketeer Martin "The Gimp" Snyder (fascinatingly played with nary a redeeming quality by James Cagney). The smitten Snyder exerts pressure on his show-biz connections, and before long Ruth is a star of nightclubs, stage and films. Ruth continues to string Snyder along to get ahead, but she can't help falling in love with musician Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell). After sinking his fortune into a nightclub for Ruth's benefit, Snyder is rather understandably put out when he finds her in the arms of Alderman. Snyder shoots the musician (but not fatally) and is carted away to prison. Upon his release, Snyder finds that Ruth is still in love with Alderman; he is mollified by her act of largesse in keeping her promise to perform in his nightclub at a fraction of her normal salary. No one comes off particularly nobly in Love Me or Leave Me, even though the still-living Ruth Etting, Martin Snyder and Johnny Alderman were offered full script approval. The fact that we are seeing flesh-and-blood opportunists rather than the usual sugary-sweet MGM musical stick figures naturally makes for a more powerful film. In his autobiography, James Cagney had nothing but praise for his co-star Doris Day, and bemoaned the fact that she would soon turn her back on dramatic roles to star in a series of fluffy domestic comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
An MGM musical remarkably free of sentimentality, Love Me or Leave Me (1955) features top-billed Doris Day as 1920s and 30s blues singer Ruth Etting and James Cagney as her sadistic gangster husband Martin "The Gimp" Snyder. A more bitter than sweet view of Etting's real life rise to fame and her twisted relationship with Snyder, screenwriters Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart and director Charles Vidor present Etting and Snyder as equally ruthless in their professional and personal lives. Even as his adoration of Etting may humanize him, Cagney's Snyder is also psychotically violent; Day matches Cagney's intensity as the tortured yet emotionally cruel Etting. Punctuated by Day's performances of Etting hits like Shaking the Blues Away, and the new composition I'll Never Stop Loving You, Love Me or Leave Me became a box office hit, despite fan objections to Day's uncharacteristically licentious onscreen presence. Even though critics agreed that Day could hold her own dramatically opposite Cagney, only Cagney received an Oscar nomination for his fascinating performance as a most unsavory man. Also nominated for several other Oscars including Best Song and Score, Love Me or Leave Me won the Oscar for Fuchs's story. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Harry Bellaver - Georgie; Richard Gaines - Paul Hunter; Peter Leeds - Fred Taylor; Claude Stroud - Eddie Fulton; John Harding - Greg Trent; Dorothy Abbott - Dancer; Jay Adler - Orry; Genevieve Aumont - Woman; Veda Ann Borg - Hostess; Benny Burt - Stage manager; Claire Carleton - Claire; John Damler - 2nd Reporter; John Day - Stage-Hand; James Drury - Assistant director; Roy Engel - Propman; Mauritz Hugo - Irate customer; Henry Kulky - Bouncer; Robert Malcolm - Doorman; Paul McGuire - Drapery man; Otto Reichow - Bouncer; Bob Stephenson - Waiter; Larri Thomas - Chorus girl; Dale Van Sickel - Stagehand; Audrey Wilder - Jingle Girl; Robert Carson - Mr. Brelston, Radio Station Manager; Jimmy Cross - Photographer; Chet Brandenburg - Chauffeur; Michael Kostrick - Assistant Director; Barry Regan - Guard; Phil Schumacher; Shirley Wilson - Chorus Girl; Dick Simmons - Dance director
Credit
Alex Romero - Choreography, Helen Rose - Costume Designer, Ridgeway Callow - First Assistant Director, Charles Vidor - Director, Ralph Winters - Editor, Nicholas Brodszky - Composer (Music Score), George Stoll - Composer (Music Score), Percy Faith - Composer (Music Score), George Stoll - Musical Direction/Supervision, Cedric Gibbons - Production Designer, Urie McCleary - Production Designer, Arthur E. Arling - Cinematographer, Joe Pasternak - Producer, Jack D. Moore - Set Designer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Warren Newcombe - Special Effects, Wesley C. Miller - Sound/Sound Designer, Daniel Fuchs - Screenwriter, Isobel Lennart - Screenwriter
Cagney suggested to producer Joe Pasternak that Day be cast in the Etting role.[1] The role had been sought by Ava Gardner, but Cagney persuaded MGM to cast Day, who was excited to play opposite Cagney.
