In 1931 Paramount gave Rouben Mamoulian the job of directing the musical Love Me Tonight. It had previously been an Ernst Lubitsch project, and he had done a lot of work on it
Mamoulian was the latest hot director with Paramount, and Lubitsch never liked to be upstaged. He had his own reputation to consider. A year or so later when he directed The Merry Widow - which had the same leading players - he had his opportunity to demonstrate how Mamoulian's scenes could have been done.
In Love Me Tonight we first see the leading lady Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald) when she is standing on a balcony of the family chateau singing "Isn't It Romantic". Everybody in a contemporary audience would have recognised her, and if not, her picture was plastered all over the foyer where it could hardly have been missed. A fine singer, quite pretty, although a little bit horsy with her rather lon…